New Start
by Lily272
Summary: Ginny leaves Harry convinced that he's gay and when Harry starts, partly due to it, to question a few of his choices in life he gets the chance to start something new!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Since everyone writes that they own the characters for their fanfiction I hereby do the most useless thing and say that I don't own the characters. And it is useless because seriously, this is fanfiction for a reason! And if anyone ever thinks that they are original characters they are stupid!

**Summary: **Ginny leaves Harry convinced that he's gay and when Harry starts, partly due to it, to question a few of his choices in life he gets the chance to start something new!

**Warning**: Ginny is not completely right saying that Harry is Gay but she also isn't completely wrong and this certainly is slash because I hate homophobic. I know someone who's father is gay and who had a huge crisis when finding out in puberty that her father just married and had kids because his family is homophobic. It really wasn't fun. Especially since her mother really had loved the jerk and cried herself to sleep whenever he ran off and cheated on her! And all that because he felt pushed to hide by his own homophobic family! So either you love slash and enjoy reading it or you just press that back button on your browser because there is no reason to write a nasty review about slash!

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**New start**

Harry Potter is the youngest head Auror in history and that is, if you ask him, only because he is useless anywhere else being too much of a distraction for everyone around him. All the rookies worship him the second they see him, hell, the older Aurors that hadn't been to Hogwarts or the order with him and such didn't have much to do with him, worship the ground their saviour is walking on. It is not rare that his very presence makes them so nervous that they fail to cast the simplest spells! Ginny used to be able to cheer him up when he came home complaining about it and soon he would laugh with her but that seems to be over now. Everything was different from last night.

And while his coworkers all to often got useless, the people they are trying to apprehend either get scared shitless and run the second they see Harry or all of them attack only Harry at the same time. The later extreme leaves the others free to easily disarm and apprehend them after their first curse, at least those that are still able to think and function but having ten or more curses and hexes thrown at Harry at once has sent him to Mungos more than once. Not that any managed to fatally harm him since he learned to get out of the way quickly but every now and then one of those curses did hit their target and break a bone or two or gave him a bad cut. He nearly lost an arm thanks to one of those once.

"What can I do for you?" Harry asks his friend after that friend entered while Harry was too deep in thoughts to even hear him enter. Seeing Ron slightly dirty from his last mission in the field Harry gets once again jealous that while also being a war hero, Ron at least is still able and allowed to work in the field while Harry is stuck with a pile of paperwork which is earning itself a death glare.

"Mum asked me to talk to you because Ginny moved back in and refuses to tell her why," Ron says. "I get it if you don't want to talk about it now, being at work and all, but maybe we can have a drink after work today."

"There is nothing to say apart from her going crazy." Harry sighs. "She just went shopping, spend an entire afternoon forcing me to sit through her playing model and showing me how well everything suits her by wearing it up and down in front of me and then burst into tears accusing me of cheating on her and when I swear an oath on my life and magic that I never even looked at another woman she suddenly accused me of being gay and ran off. rely don't get what has gotten into her. I was even nice enough to compliment everything and all that. I really don't know what made her lose her marbles and I know she's your sister and you love her but I swear she just lost it!"

"That does sound crazy." Ron muses fighting a grin. He had heard from Hermione that Ginny had talked to her about their relationship before and the thought of Harry possibly being gay and just not having figured it out had been raised during that. Apparently, Hermione is sure that Harry is and just loves Ginny like a sister and confused it for more. He also knows that Hermione and Ginny had a plat to find out for sure if that is the case. Not knowing what it was and how this could have helped prove that point he asks, "What did she buy anyway?"

"Girls stuff," Harry replies sounding board. "Nickers and bras and such useless stuff. I think there were some matching stockings in the mix."

Ron gapes at him and blushes before finally finding his voice and asking, "You mean to say that my baby sister walked in front of you in her underwear and please don't tell me if it was anything but white and plain with nothing erotic about it, and you were bored to death?"

"It was girls stuff!" Harry says in his defence hearing his friend's incredulous tone. "It was boring even though they were all different, I don't know if one was white or not. And I don't know what you mean about erotic about bras but most didn't have enough fabric to be anything at all. I wonder who would even pay for that little fabric I mean seriously some needed to be stuck on with magic because there wasn't enough fabric to fix them on otherwise! And anyway, what should I have done instead?"

"Fuck her!" Ron says before adding "I can't believe I just said that about my sister and I think I'm going to be sick later, but if Hermione had done that, I would have!"

"Why?" Harry asks. "And we aren't even married and you are the one to always tell me not to do anything untoward with your little sister! That is why we have different bedrooms."

"you have what? I'm her brother! I have to say that." Ron says, "You're her lover you're supposed to keep it secret that you screw her silly behind my back and to never ever tell me about it! But honestly Harry, I'm starting to think that the girls are right and you are gay and just haven't figured it out. How can you not get hot when a decent looking girl is half naked in front of you?"

"Ron, do you really want to talk about me wanting or not wanting to screw your baby sister?" Harry deadpans.

"No, I'm talking about you wanting to screw a girl in general!" Ron asks. "I heard before that Ginny was worried that she is always the one that has to initiate a kiss. When is the last time you really wanted to kiss a girl?"

"I kissed her," Harry claims. "I'm not sure when I last started the kissing but I did kiss her on occasion."

"Did you like it?" Ron asks not sure he wants to hear the answer.

"Better than Cho." Harry shrugs.

"Cho cried if I remember correctly!" Ron points out. "Don't you feel anything? I mean don't you get horny when she kisses you?"

"And again, this is your sister Ron." Harry just reminds his friend.

"Believe me, I'm sick enough from talking with you about my sister without you reminding me so please let me try to tell myself that it's about girls, in general, I'm begging you!" Ron says, "But if you don't want to talk to me about it that's fine but do me the favour and try and think about the possibility of being gay. Hermione thinks you are as well and she does have a scary tendency to be right about everything so you should at least try and be sure about what you like before you start another relationship and don't worry about Ginny. She'll get over it eventually and we all know that you did like her and never wanted to hurt her. Even if it was more like a sister or something like that, none of us will hold it against you even Ginny won't once she's over it a bit."

"Thanks, mate," Harry says. He had been worried about how the Weasley's would take the news.

"Anyway, I get back to work, got a big case and I see you've got plenty of paperwork to keep you busy." Ron grins at Harry who very maturely sticks out his tongue.

For a while, Harry tries to focus on his paperwork but it isn't easy. He keeps thinking about how much he starts to hate the job. He can't even remember why he ever thought it was a good idea. Granted he wanted to protect others and help them but really, this job was either boring or life-threatening and the first he hated while he was thoroughly fed up with the later and most of the time it wasn't really about saving someone and more about catching someone. Very often it wasn't even someone of death eater standards and more someone who had dared to turn their dog pink or rabbit green or other such things that could attract unwanted muggle attention. And now he was even stuck in this stupid office with a sore wrist and no one at home who would massage his wrist and make him laugh about the stupidity of co-workers. Instead he had to go home to a house that used to belong to is dead godfather and is full of memories of the war.

He is about to get ready to go home for the day and leave the left-over paperwork that was supposed to be done yesterday for the next day, and the one from today for the one after that, or better yet to burn it all, but it seems like he'll have to make another long day when a knock stops him from leaving his office. "Come in." He says instead of going home and just hopes that it's not someone with another pile of paper work and not someone who tends to talk for ages around the real topic either.

"Hello, Mister Potter." Minerva McGonagall says coming into the office.

"Professor," Harry says pleasantly surprised. "What a surprise to see you, please have a seat and tell me how I can help you."

"Oh, I do hope you'll help me Mister Potter, or may I call you Harry." She questions.

"Of course, Professor," Harry says.

"Minerva my dear. I think after fighting side by side during a war we should have gone to first name basis a while ago wouldn't you agree?" Minerva says smiling fondly at the young man. "I have stopped seeing you as a student before you returned to finish your NEWT year."

"Minerva than, now what brings you to me today." Harry questions.

"Desperation." She replies, "I'm here because I'm simply desperate."

"Unless you explain a little more detailed I'm afraid I don't know how to help you, Professor, I mean Minerva." Harry says smiling, "I guess I'll need some time to get used to that."

"I hope you'll get plenty of chances to get used to it." Minerva sighs. "But back to the topic. As the summer is nearly at an end I'm, as usual around this time, in desperate need of a new defence instructor and as usual, I advertised that we have a vacancy for the position at the start of summer break in the daily prophet. Unfortunately, as the last two years, no one in England wants the position. Everyone is certain that it is cursed since there are still accidents that sadly ensured that no one managed to keep the post for more than a year, well considering that they start after summer break and sadly have to quit a few days before the term comes to an end, it's never even been a whole year." She sighs again, "Since by now I feared that no one in the country would dare to apply for the post I already ensured to have a similar advertisement for the job in international papers but since I did that for a few years now it seems the belief of a curse on the position is spreading like wildfire. What happened to the previous instructors is known everywhere by now. I mean no one died since you left school but well, we both know that leaving with no memories and still not having regained any of them isn't the worst that happened. I'll just be saying Quirrell! I even had Gringotts curse breakers at the school and have in writing that there is no curse but since there also stands there never was one, everyone is certain the curse is just too well hidden to be noticed. Now I'm left with just one person who applied and that is a potions master from abroad who's more interested in my potions instructor then teaching. To make matters worse, he is hardly capable of speaking English and he also isn't able to tell me the difference between a werewolf and an Animagus even in his own language. And believe me, Harry, it gets worth. He can't even cast a simple Protego. I can't hire a man to teach defence if he can't even cast a first-year defensive charm! On top of that, if he tries to flirt with my potions Professor he's going to be poisoned within the first week which will make the talk about a curse worsen!"

Harry can't help but chuckle imagining someone as Minerva described to try and teach a NEWT class and says, "I fear the potions Professor won't get a chance to poison him, your seventh years will accidentally kill him trying their curses!"

"This is not funny Harry." Minerva chides him "I'm one step away from going to St Mungo's and begging them to return Lockhart to us. Even with no memories, he'll be better than that man who dared to come to a job interview today."

Harry can't help but laugh now but tries to calm himself quickly after getting the headmistress' stern glare and then says, "Please tell me, how do you think I can help you? Would you like me to talk to one of the Aurors to take the job?"

"No Harry, I want to talk you into taking the job." Minerva deadpans seriously.

"Me?" Harry asks surprised. "What makes you think I'd be any good at the job?"

"A number of things." Minerva says, "I know that you will have to talk it over with Ginny but I will already be grateful if you could take the job for two years and will leave you out of all the additional jobs like doing rounds so you can stay at home with her as much as possible. You see, everyone seems to think it's impossible to stay longer than a year. And everyone knows that when you do need the impossible done, you are the man to go to! Also, if I take the members of the DA you ran during the fifth year and the rest the overall scores during all end of year exams including OWL tests, your DA students did far better than the rest and that stayed for the three following years which shows that they were also better prepared for the next years than the rest were. That proves that you not only know the subject you also know how to inspire students to do their best and to make sure they remember what you taught them. Harry I've prayed every year to get your application for the job on my desk and to be honest, I'm sick of waiting especially now that I have no one else." Harry just stares at her and she at him until her eyes land on the stack of paperwork on his desk and she adds, "I think you should consider the offer unless you'd rather continue with your paperwork!"

"Hell no," Harry shouts out nearly scared. "I mean, I don't like the paperwork, we both know I'm a practical kind of guy, but wouldn't there be paperwork as a teacher too?"

"Not as much as here and you could work with young children that want to learn to protect themselves and can give them the means to stay safe by keeping themselves safe!" Minerva says hoping that Harry's saving people thing will help her to talk him into taking the job. "As I said I understand that you'll have to talk this over with Ginny but I do expect your owl with a positive answer by the end of next week."

After that, she rises and is about to leave when Harry says, "I don't have to talk to Gin, she broke up with me yesterday, seems like Skeeter is losing her touch since you don't know it yet but yeah, I don't have to talk to her."

"I have some charming and young teachers on staff at the moment." Minerva tries to talk Harry further into taking the job. "I don't know if you ever talked to Romilda Vane in your time at Hogwarts but she teaches ancient runes."

"Oh yes, I remember Romilda, she sent me sweets that were spiked with love potion once in my sixth year. Ron ate them!" Harry grins.

"I kick her out if you want." Minerva sighs, "It's definitely easier to get someone for her position than defence!"

"No need to kick anyone out." Harry laughs, "Just do me a favour and don't try to hock me up with anyone. Especially since Ginny broke up with the silly belief that I'm gay which would be new to me but apparently not to Hermione. I really don't want a girlfriend right now, all I want is some peace."

Minerva eyes him for a moment. "Dennis Creevey is teaching Muggle studies. I know he's a bit younger than you but not too much, wouldn't you agree?"

Harry laughs before saying, "Just promise me that you stop trying to play matchmaker for me and I'll take the job! Deal?"

"Deal." Minerva agrees and holds out her hand. "I'll send you an owl to with a possible appointment to sign the papers than let me know if it doesn't suit you. And please consider the Books you'd like your students to buy."

A little later Minerva returns to her office via floo and sees her potions professor sitting in front of her desk. "Can I help you?"

Said Professor just glares at her before drawling clearly upset "I just wanted to make you aware of the fact that should that moron that I passed in the hallway not to long ago. Who said and I quote 'Me tea defen, me merry yo' become the next defence teacher you will need two knew professors by the end of the starting feast because one will be poisoned and one might get sent to Azkaban for poisoning that moron!" He grins a little before adding, "I'm afraid Professor Vane won't like him and we both know that she could brew such a poison! Just to make clear that it won't be me who would ever do something like that!"

"Of course, it wouldn't be you." Minerva grins certain that he would really go through with that plan, maybe not on the first night but if that man would continue with such sentences he would find himself poisoned. Not fatally but bad enough to ensure he won't return. "But there is nothing to worry. If you hadn't been here I probably already would have written a letter to him stating that I found someone with better qualifications."

"I never knew you would lie." The younger Professor drawls. "We both know there is no other applicant for that position." They had talked about it just that afternoon.

"No there wasn't." She confirms, "But I just came back from the Ministry and talked someone there to take the job."

"I swear to god that if that person is female and wears even a stitch of pink the result will be the same!" The man nearly growls.

"Oh no." Minerva grins, "Believe me he is certainly nothing like a pink wearing undersecretary. Our new Defence Professor will be a man who not only got an Outstanding in his defence OWL and NEWT level tests he's also one of the youngest Aurors ever even though he did start his training a year later than is usual for people fresh out of Hogwarts due to his involvement in the war, he practically ran through Auror training. He's also the youngest head Auror ever."

"Potter?" The man drawls, "You talked Potter to take the job?"

"I did," Minerva replies proudly.

The other man just glowers but finally rises from his seat. "As long as you don't expect us to be civil around each other I guess he won't find his food or drink poisoned."

"At least with nothing but a love potion!" Minerva grins remembering what Harry had told her about Romilda.

"What is that supposed to mean?" The Potions Professor asks blushing.

"Oh, Professor Vane apparently tried that once in her Hogwarts years." Minerva replies surprised at the blush, "Why, what did you think I meant?"

The man just grunts and leaves while Minerva watches after him and then grins and wonders if giving some opportunities for two young men to become closer can already be considered matchmaking and decides that no, it most certainly is not.

Harry does get an owl from Minerva the next day informing him when she would like him to come in to sign the papers as well as a few information on everything that has to do with the job that he might not have been aware of as a student and invites him to ask any further questions when they met to sign the contract.

The day Harry arrives at the gates of Hogwarts he takes a look around before going further until he hears a drawled, "You're going to be late Potter."

The way his name was spat leaves no doubt as to whom said those words, "Hi Malfoy." He just calmly replies, "Do we really have to keep up all that fighting? I'm a little sick of petty schoolyard rivalries I must say."

"Rivalries?" Malfoy grumbles, "You were my number one nemesis."

"Really?" Harry asks. "I'm flattered but, don't get me wrong I'm sure you can be a great villain if you put your mind to it but, next to Voldemort who was after my blood, you had just too much of a conscience for my number one nemesis!"

"I admit that is a rather worthy opponent for the spot." Draco grins, "But I'm sure I was number two."

"Let me think." Harry replies, "No your aunt had that spot. She killed my godfather you know. That kind of beats small curses aimed at my back. And then there was Umbitch who tried to take over the school, oh and Grayback who tried to kill more than one people I knew and oh, your dad, he tried to kill me with the killing curse once which is a little worse than the worst you could come up with. And then there is Wormtail who betrayed my parents, well that moron is more like number one nuisance but still!"

"Wormtail? You think Wormtail is worse than me?" The Potions Professor questions.

"Oh definitely, stupider too and such rather a nuisance than a villain but more evil for sure!" Harry grins. "Anyway, what are you doing here Malfoy?"

"I'm the potions master, Head of Slytherin and deputy headmaster." Draco preens standing taller all of a sudden.

"So, you're the new dungeon bat?" Harry questions with a grin. "Well, I must say, you give a very poor imitation of Snape, your hair looks too good and your nose is too high! But apart from that, you've got intimidating others down well enough to have the kids shiver in their boots when they see you coming I presume."

"For someone who claims to be above petty schoolyard rivalry you sure as hell seem to enjoy making fun of me," Malfoy grumbles. "And now come, I believe there is a contract that is waiting for your signature."

"Did Minerva ask you to welcome me?" Harry asks sceptically.

"No," Malfoy growls, "She asked me to welcome you, answer all your questions show you the previously used defence classroom and ask if it is acceptable as well as the office and the private rooms that are prepared for you and most importantly to ensure that your name is at the bottom of your contract since apparently, something came up and she won't be in the castle for the rest of the day."

Harry watches Draco for a moment and sighs, "I guess the headmasters always have a bit too much free time. She is getting as bad as Dumbledore."

"What do you mean?" Malfoy asks with a slight blush praying that Minerva hadn't gotten the wrong impression from his reaction about that bloody love potion and possibly is trying to play matchmaker and already mentioned something to Potter. Which is something he'd rather avoid since he certainly doesn't want anyone to try and set him up with Potter of all people! After all, which self-respecting Slytherin would want to fuck with a Gryffindor who's hair looks like someone already shagged the living daylight out of him and who is skinny and lean and, well, he might have a nice body, but that doesn't change anything.

"Nothing let's go," Harry says and walks toward the headmaster's office. "I guess that contract is in her office so let's get that out of the way first."

'okay,' Draco thinks, seeing Harry walk ahead of him in tight-fitting muggle jeans and such getting a nice view on his rear end. 'Maybe with that ass, even a self-respecting Slytherin would fuck that particular Gryffindor but that's all, no feelings involved!'

Harry walks ahead until they reach the gargoyle and waits for Draco to say the password and then walks after the blond man and after the talk he had with Ron earlier that week wonders how he'd react to seeing that particular male in his underwear rather than Ginny and comes to the conclusion that since he never cared during Quidditch about his teammates, he probably wouldn't with Draco.

Once they are up in the office, Draco offers Harry to sit down and wordlessly hands over the contract which Harry looks over fleetingly before signing it. "Have you never heard of reading a contract before signing it?" Draco drawls seeing how quickly the other took the quill and signed it.

"Heard, yeah." Harry replies "But after some time as head Auror with mountains of paperwork that no one could do if he or she read everything thoroughly I learned to skim the important parts and skip the rest."

"I hope you're going to be more thorough with your grading." Draco just drawls earning himself a grin.

"As long as I don't get a mountain of that." Harry grins, "And since I'll be giving out that work I can make sure to avoid that."

"Lazy bum," Draco grumbles. "I take it you don't have any questions? Seeing as you're probably unable to think about them ahead of time!"

"A ton actually but how about you show me the rooms first." Harry grins.

After a roll of his eyes, Draco walks ahead to the same defence room they had been in. "Why did you have to show me if we both know that I know that room?" Harry wonders. "I even know the office, been there for detention and chats with Remus a few times actually. I'm just not sure who's detentions were worse, Umbitch or Lockhart."

"Why? What did Lockhart do?" Draco asks wondering how anyone could be on even ground when Umbridge used a blood quill.

"Made me help with his fan mail by addressing the return envelopes and forced me to listen to his heroic stories about himself." Harry grumbles, "I thought I was going to fall asleep while writing and my mind felt numb by the end of the night. Actually, the more I think about it the more I'm sure that his Detention was worse! Umbridge's hurt more but his detention was torture in the purest form!"

Draco just chuckles, "I believe that I would have preferred Lockhart's."

"Sure, you would." Harry grins, "You were just as stuck up as him at the time. But it seems, you actually got decent while growing up."

Draco blushes faintly when Harry compares him favourably even to that man but then glares once he caught himself and says, "I was never stuck up."

"Keep telling yourself that." Harry grins. "Does this castle not have a better room to practise the spells?" Harry questions.

"Not that I know of," Draco replies. "This has been the defence room for about 10 years before we started and before that, it was taught mostly outside at the outskirts of the forest and occasionally inside the forest to defend against the creatures but a student got hurt so they changed it."

"Think I could have the empty room next to this one too?" Harry questions. "Maybe I can prepare that for practical work and move over with the class whenever we do that and then I have a place without desks and stuff in the way and a place with desks and stuff for stuffy paperwork!"

"Are you kidding?" Draco questions, "McGonagall will kill for you if that's what she has to do in order for you to stay. The room is yours I'll just leave her a note on her desk once we are done, and she'll be glad you're happy with the rooms you have."

Harry just grins, "And my private rooms? How are those?"

Draco walks towards the office and through that towards a small scratch in the wall and says "It's past here. You'll need to set a password which by the way is reset whenever a new teacher sings his or her contract meaning whatever you'll say to that scratch first will be your password until either you'll order that scratch to change it or you'll leave us. It reacts to your magical signature when talking to it to set the password." Harry looks at the squiggly line that the scratch is and thinks 'looks nearly like a snake.'

He grins and says, "Open" in Parseltongue happy that he didn't lose that ability with Voldies soul piece. Probably because it was with him for so long that it stuck just like the personality traits he might have from it.

He sees Draco shiver a little and grins even more before walking into the spacious room and sees that it's impeccably clean and free of dust and presumes that the house elves cleaned it. The room is a lovely medium sized living room with a fireplace with a comfortable looking sitting area close to it there is also a bookshelf that is still empty and the colour theme of the room is a little Slytherin but elegant and with the big windows, warm orange colours aren't really needed and Harry must say that he likes it. "Green" He still says slightly surprised since he had always pictured it rather in Gryffindor colours but who knows if the previous Professors had changed it a few times since Remus had been here. It probably was pink during Umbridge's time.

"Yes," Draco says sounding smug. "Slytherin green and silver, McGonagall asked me yesterday to get the elves to clean and refurbish it in a suitable manner!"

Harry grins a little and says, "How sweet of you to make it match my eye colour I'm flattered!" Harry's grin increases seeing the slight blush rise to the blond's cheeks and the surprise on his face. Draco clearly had meant to annoy Harry with it and just to annoy him in return Harry adds, "How did you know that green and silver are my favourite colours? Everyone else always gives me everything in red and gold, it is getting really old really fast you know. I must say you have great taste Malfoy." He walks over to the couch and says right after sitting down, "And so very comfortable."

Draco blushes even more for a moment before he manages to find his composure and grumbles, "Whatever Potter. You mentioned some questions you had."

"Why don't you sit down?" Harry offers.

"Because I'm actually hoping that it won't take long." Draco drawls. "I do have better things to do with my time."

Harry just sighs and starts to ask a few questions like when they would have free time how the rounds are organised if every teacher has to do them every night and things like that and once all his questions have been answered by a board looking Draco, Harry says, "Now that second room, could you show me which empty room is closest to mine?"

"What no question about your ginger screw staying the night?" Draco drawls.

"Don't call her that." Harry grumbles, "She is not a screw and most certainly won't stay a night anyway since she broke up with me."

"She what?" Draco asks shocked.

"She broke up with me," Harry repeats.

"I always knew you couldn't keep a girl." Draco grins trying to rile him up.

Harry just shrugs and says, "Seems like Hermione would agree."

Draco's jaw just drops and he decides to stop questioning this to save his own sanity and just keep an eye on the Gryffindor golden boy to find out what on earth he's talking about. A little later they are in a dusty room full of old desks that apparently are stored there. Harry looks back to where his own room is and wonders, "Why is there so much space between them?"

"Who knows." Draco shrugs "There are a lot of places where there seems to be nothing but solid stone for no good reason."

"Maybe there is a secret room?" Harry wonders aloud.

"Then by all means go and play treasure hunt but please, do it without me. I do have better things to do with my time!" Draco drawls with a roll of his eyes. "Minerva said you may come and go as you please and rearrange your rooms to your liking again until the new term starts."

"Awesome." Harry grins, "Since my private rooms are already perfectly green, I'll see if that secret room can be of use to me and if not rearrange this one. Now excuse me Malfoy. I'll be finding yet another secret room and ensure that it's safe like I did with that chamber of secrets while you may go and play with your potions kit." After that Harry turns and leaves a grumbling Draco. A little later Harry is walking around the area with his trusted Marauders map to see if there might be anything but even the map doesn't show anything. It takes him two more days during which he's spending most of his time talking to the portraits along the walls on all sides of that area that might hold a secret room and he is close to giving up when he notices a squiggle along the wall in his classroom from the corner of his eyes. He takes a closer look and nearly believes that he imagined it when he finally finds a tiny badger scratched into stone.

"Hello, lovely." He says and since he doesn't get a reply he just ads, "Will you open a passage for me?" Nothing happens. Harry looks at the map and sees that nothing happens and presumes that it's because the Marauders didn't know about this room. With a sigh he tries to say different things. Focusing mainly on the house Hufflepuff since a badger seems to hint that it wasn't Godric's room. Considering that Defence used to be taught elsewhere he presumes that this was used as something different. Harry is close to giving up when he tries "Equality" thinking that if Godric and Salazar already fought a lot a friend who was known for loyalty and fairness would probably be on the side of equality despite trying to impartial. The wall opens up similar to the one behind the Leaky opens to Diagon and behind is a huge mostly empty room. When he walks in the torches along the walls start to burn and Harry looks around at the dusty room that only has a few bookcases and the torches inside. After considering to call the Hogwarts house elves to clean it he calls "Kreacher!" instead.

The elf that used to hate him and now seems to rather adore him is in front of him. "Hey Kreacher, how do you feel today?"

"Kreacher is in good health master. How may Kreacher serve his noble master?" The elf asks before mumbling about kind master helping with old masters locked as he does so often. Helping the elf fulfil his Master's dying wish really has warmed the old elf up to his new master and when Harry had returned to Grimmauld after the war to see how the house looked he had been shocked to see it in prime condition and perfectly clean. Even the portrait of Walburga Black had been moved and Harry offered the elf to store it in his cupboard where the elf insists to life and Harry enlarged the space enough to fit the portrait and while Walburga was less than pleased Kreacher seems truly happy about it.

"Kreacher dear, how fast do you think you can clean this room?" Harry asks and the little elf just snips his fingers and the dust seems to move out of the window and soon after the room is clean. "Could you check if the furniture and torches are still in prime condition? I'd rather not have them fall off the wall and onto me." Another snap of Kreacher's fingers and the few bookcases and shelves along the walls seem to shift and straighten. "Kreacher, you are positively the best. Whatever would I do without you?

"Thank you, Master Harry," Kreacher says with a bow, "Is there anything else Kreacher can do for Master Harry?"

"Not at the moment but I'd be happy if you could make sure that Grimmauld stays in prime condition and report to me every evening if the house is okay and if anything interesting happened during the day," Harry orders mostly to make sure that the elf wouldn't feel lonely while he was gone.

"As Master wishes." The elf says and leaves while Harry starts to explore the room and drawers. And changes it a little until he has to get ready to celebrate his own new job and Ron's promotion as head Auror with his two best friends and their family. Ginny included but according to Ron she isn't mad at him, just a little sad but will get over it.

Harry just hopes it won't be too awkward and who knows, maybe he'll eventually get back together with her when she finally comes to her senses that he isn't gay just because he doesn't screw her through the mattress before they are married. Well, he must confess that he never felt the urge to and it seems that Ron also believes that to be off the norm and Harry himself isn't sure if he'd want to screw her through the mattress even if they were married but that doesn't make him gay, does it? He never particularly dreamed about a guy either. Not that he had the time to really think about it all that often with a sadistic megalomaniac out for his blood during his teens and then the reporters and interviews and death eater trials and rebuilding of the school and wizarding world in total that took more than three years. The castle itself was still under repair when he had finished his last year and he had helped out with all the other returning students whenever they could and the reporters had been around all the time too and Minerva said sending them away wouldn't help and he should just try and answer honestly and hope that way they'd write honestly instead of gossip from other sources. She might have had a point and eventually, Harry has gotten used to all the questions and the reports were more honest when he gave detailed answers instead of avoiding them.

Then later during Auror training Harry had used most of his free time to study since so many people were expecting him to succeed everything with ease that he felt he had to live up to their expectations and worked extra hard and all that only to be promoted to head Auror within less than a year because he was no use in the field and the previous head Auror had always asked the war hero he adored beyond reason anyway. Being unused to that amount of paperwork and hating it as well made sure that Harry had always worked from early mornings till late at night. He has no idea how Ginny could ever have accused him of cheating before accusing him of being gay because when on earth should he have found the time to cheat on her? He barely had time to spend with her never mind a second woman on the side! Lucky for him the evening with his friends and Ron's family goes smoothly and while Ginny avoids being too close to him, it is a very nice evening and no one is even talking about their broken relationship.


	2. Chapter 2

**New Start **

**Chapter two**

By the time school starts Harry is less worried about Ginny and whether or not she was just crazy to call him gay or not, and more worried about teaching children. He had spent a good part of the last few days planning the school year and looking over everything that was usually asked in OWL and NEWT level examinations as well as in the other end of years examinations and planned topics for each of his seven grades and approximately how long he planned to stick with one topic and even what lesson is to cover exactly what parts for the first topics for each class and he is very proud to be this prepared for his class. He might still make some changes since from the second year on every grade will start with a quick and easy multiple-choice test to see how much they have learned so far just to make sure they know everything they should have learned in previous years because he'd rather not let anyone leave this school unable to cast a Protego like that wizard who apparently had applied for the job as defence teacher.

Harry is sitting next to Neville during the welcoming feast since the four heads sit evenly divided to both sides of Minerva. After that comes the new teacher and Harry is just glad that he could easily talk Neville out of handing him the position as head of Gryffindor which he seems to have for a few years now. He really doesn't want all that much responsibility right at the start and fears that it would come with additional paperwork. He watches the students being sorted and can hardly believe that he used to be that tiny but then again, he was on the smaller side if he remembers correctly, still, it seems hard to believe. Once he is introduced the school is deathly silent for a moment before all the students cheer for him, well, all but Slytherin. He wonders if that is because they fear him to be prejudiced against them or if they hate him, but he doesn't say anything about it now and just hopes that he can get them to like him a little too or at least respect him and not out of fear.

The next morning Harry is nearly too worried to eat his breakfast and hears Malfoy chuckle "Don't tell me our saviour fears a bunch of kids?"

"I don't fear them Malfoy." Harry sighs, "I fear to fail them you douchbag. Especially since I've got fourth years Gryffindors and Slytherins first. Do you remember how we were that year? Last year with no big exams? Okay, the tournament distracted us a little but really, I bet those are the worst."

"Haven't seen sixth years." Neville sighs while Malfoy grumbles that he most certainly is not a douchbag, "Cocky after passing their OWL's and with a little too much spell knowledge if you ask me."

"Great, you do know I've got them right after that?" Harry sighs.

"Tough luck." Neville grins before adding, "But that way it can only get better after that."

"Great." Harry sighs.

After breakfast, he goes to his classroom and watches the kids tickle in while he reads a book until it's time to start. He has used a spell to let him know when the class should start and as soon as his book flashes red to let him know that he has to stop reading and start the class. He puts the book down and looks around before spelling the door close.

"Hello everyone," Harry greets. "First of all, since I don't know any of you and you don't know me, allow me to make some things clear. I will on occasion start the class with an overview of what we are going to do but not always because sometimes it might take too much time to explain or just be one thing that takes longer and that would be pointless. Today it does make sense so I will start by explaining some ground rules I expect you to follow in my classroom and some even outside, after that I would like a short introduction round where you will have to give me your name and what part of defence you can do particularly well, like that you're better in theory or one topic that you could do best or a spell you like to use and are good at. For example I think everyone here knows that I'm rather found of expeliarmus. While we are at it I'd like everyone to tell me what you still find difficult. And let me tell you now before I forget it if anyone ever laughs about anyone else having trouble with something that person will lose a lot of points and find him or herself in the hallway for the rest of class. After the introduction round, I have a multiple-choice test prepared with all topics from year one to seven." Hearing the outraged gasp, he quickly adds, "This will not be graded and yes I'm aware you are fourth years and just starting it meaning I expect you all to NOT be able to answer about 50% or more of the questions correctly and would like to ask you to not guess when you are not sure because this will not be graded. I'm simply attempting to find out each and everyone's individual knowledge and only will give every student in every grade the same test with topics from all seven years to find out if there is a student more advanced than his or her year mates because then I would pair that person with people that need more assistance during group work. Next class, we will then go over practical knowledge but as I said, I'd like to know how much you are capable of first. Now unless you have any questions about what we are going to do let us begin."

Harry waits to see if anyone has a question and a Slytherin girl raises her hand and after a nod from Harry asks, "How will it help the advanced students if they are paired with losers?"

"Five points from Slytherin for using the word loser." Harry says gaining a glare from all Slytherins. "And to answer your question, teaching others will not only let you yourself review your knowledge and practise what you know but also teaches you to teach others which is something I learned in this school in a similar way and intend to use now. It also helps you understand each other and teaches you to work in teams which is an important part of defence since the best defence is always with a team to back you up. To do that you need to learn to work with others and to help them improve their abilities because the better your partner, the better your team and the better your chances of surviving a fight. Are you satisfied with that answer?" Since she isn't complaining he just goes on and looks around for a moment and sees a Gryffindor boy snickering at the girl that just lost 5 points for using the word loser and such says, "Five points from Gryffindor for laughing at a classmate! I think I already said that I will not condone laughing about something someone can't do that also goes for laughing about getting in trouble or anything really. Feel free to laugh with your classmates even about me if you wish but never laugh about one of your classmates, this is the first and last time I'm saying this, next time you're outside! As you might have noticed, I do not condone bullying. I hate the words Loser, Freak, Muddblood, git and many others along those lines. I also absolutely hate Prejudices. And before we misunderstand each other, I mean all prejudices." Here he looks at the Gryffindors. "I guess everyone knows that I won't allow prejudice against Muggleborns but at the same time I will not condone it against Slytherins! The house of Slytherin is very noble and brought forth some very good and talented witches and wizards Professor Malfoy the current head of house as well as Professor Snape who was head of the house Slytherin in my time as a student here both have saved my life and without either, Voldemort would not have died at my hand at least not when he did and I probably would be dead now instead. If I hear anyone say they, as a group, did this or that, you will see me very angry and believe me you do not want to see that! If you feel that someone did something unfairly towards you I want you to use their names, not they! I also will not prefer either house. I might have been a Gryffindor in my time but that is a long time ago," and here he leans closer, "And for your information, the hat did want me in Slytherin at first. I could have gone either way and I consider myself half of both especially since there were Slytherins that saved me and a Gryffindor that betrayed my parents. You see, there were good and bad witches and wizards from either house. And I'm sure from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as well. Right now, all I see are students that I'm supposed to teach and I will not give a damn about the colour of your tie or whatever else shows what house you're in. If you work hard, I assure you I will do my utmost to get you all to pass with as good marks as possible if you are lazy, I will not pamper you. I will warn you should you be close to failing but I will not force the knowledge down your throats. However, I would like to tell you something that I once upon a time said to my own classmates before the war started. We might be just students, and yes, I still include myself since I haven't stopped learning and I believe the day I stop learning will be the day I die since we will always keep learning. But let me begin over. We are all just students, but every great wizard of our time has started as nothing but what we are now. Voldemort was a student of this school as was Albus Dumbledore and I sure as hell was one as well. If I managed to become good enough to get my name into the history books before turning 20 why shouldn't each and every one of you have the potential to do the same? That doesn't just go for this subject. Potions masters like Professor Malfoy who perfected the wolfbane to the point of curing lycanthropy and is teaching in this fine school, he was a student, I can even vouch for that since we were school rivals and so I certainly noticed him around as a student. The minister of Magic, she too was a student once upon a time. Hey, I can even vouch for that too. I admit I have not seen Albus Dumbledore as a student since he might have had to go there on a dinosaur considering his age but I'm sure he was a student at some point" He hears some chuckle a little and is glad that they start to relax again. "I know that not all of you want to become an Auror and might not want to spend all their time for this class and maybe even plan on dropping it after your fifth year but I'd like to know that no one leaves this school unable to protect themselves at least a little bit. Everyone should stand a chance should you by chance run into some dark creature or be attacked by a dark wizard or witch. I want to know that my students won't leave my class unable to cast a Protego at the very least. Now that I think I made clear what I expect of you, let me tell you what I believe you should be able to expect from me. If any of you has any trouble with their homework, my door will always be open for you. If any of you feels unprepared for a test when I announce one, come to me and I'll give you advice. If any of you has any trouble be it with the subject, another teacher or student or even just suffers from a broken heart, you can come to me. Though I admit that I'm probably not too good with love troubles. I kind of suck at giving advice on that. But I can forward your problems to someone that I believe is adequate to help you! I know I'm not a head of any house but I want to be here for you if you feel the need to talk to someone. Part of that is because I truly believe the war could have been prevented, had a poor orphan that used to go to this school found a teacher with an open ear and willingness to help him."

Some look confused until a Gryffindor dares to raise a hand and ask, "How could helping one orphan have prevented the war."

"Said orphan was a half-blood wizard who was raised in a muggle orphanage. The other kids in the orphanage were cruel to him and the minders too busy to help. From what I gathered, they were also too busy to stop his retaliation for the bullying. He learned during his time there that you needed to show your strength to survive and that was proven when he was sorted into Slytherin, and this is not against that house it could have happened anywhere for one reason or another, and some of his year mates probably had to be thought not to mess with the muggle raised child, who by the time was named Tom Marvollo Riddle." Harry spells the name onto the board. "If Albus Dumbledore who already taught in this school had quickly removed him from such surroundings and helped him to find a better home, or at least shown some help when the boy repeatedly asked to stay during the summer as well as all the other breaks because he didn't want to go back there, than maybe said boy hadn't changed his name." and here Harry spells the letters to rearrange themselves and gets the gasp he expected. "I'm not saying that it could have been prevented for sure. Tom, or Voldemort as you know him, made his own choices. If every neglected or abused child would turn out like him we'd have a serious problem! But let me tell you, if anyone of you needs aid, you can come to me at all hours. I might be your teacher, but as such I'm also responsible for assisting you. I'm not saying I'll be your best friend or that I'll ever exchange beauty tips with the girls," Again he gets some chuckles, "But if you need help from a grown up in any way, I will be there for every student in this school, no matter the house. Understood?"

No one says anything and Harry spells his table clear of everything that was on it and replaces it with a huge parchment and spells a quill to draw the desks in the classroom. "Now if you want to rearrange how you sit during the year, do it now because in about two minutes those sets will be final until I learned all your names and let me tell you, I have to learn all the names of all the students and I'm very bad in memorizing names and it might take the better part of the year. I fear there is nearly no point in learning the names of the sevens years since I might manage to learn them about a day before they leave meaning you might be stuck with your seat for the rest of the year." He waits a moment and some whisper to each other and change a seat but most stay where they are and once everyone is settled again he says, "Now I would like each of you to first give his or her introduction in the way I said before." He listens and while the spelt quill adds the name to each desk Harry personally writes down the spells they said they can do on a green post it and the one they can't on a red one and then he sticks both onto the drawing of their desk with their name on it. Once that is done he hands out the tests, he had prepared one of them and then duplicated it using magic. "Don't forget to write your name on it." Harry reminds them after handing them out since he had forgotten to mark a space for that and is unwilling to guess later who wrote what, he just makes sure that no one is too occupied with the questions to remember to write his or her name on it.

Once that is done the next class goes in a similar fashion just that both Slytherin and Gryffindor lose a few more house points thanks to the rivalry that he's trying to nip in the bud, at least during his classes. After that, he has lunch and then a second year Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw class and by the end of that is only annoyed with all the talking during class. The rest of the day passes similarly and Harry is glad when the day is over and he sits at the head table this time picking a different seat and is surprised when Malfoy sits next to him, "I see you survived the first day."

"Barely." He grumbles, "Why did no one ever tell me how annoying it can be to have half the class trying to answer before they were called on?"

"We had Hermione in our classes." Draco shrugged. "We thought you knew!"

Harry is about to come to her defence but then sighs, "I guess I get why Snape was exasperated with her on occasion, especially if he had a Ravenclaw class before that!"

"I don't get why they are nearly always with Hufflepuff, they like to whisper to each other." Draco grins.

"There are exceptions," Harry says reminding himself not to be prejudiced against anyone and that does include no Ravenclaws this or Hufflepuffs that.

Draco just grins, "I know." It is quiet for a moment while both eat their dinner but then Draco says, "I heard something interesting today."

"And what would that be?" Harry asks.

"One of your Gryffindor fourth years asked if I really saved your life." Draco says, "I set him straight that you saved mine and not the other way around."

"Then do me the favour and set it straight again that I couldn't have saved your ass if you hadn't lied to your crazy Aunt about who I am." Harry points out. "You did save me."

After that Harry just raises from his seat since he is already done with dinner and gets back to his office and start correcting those tests only to silently curse himself about giving them in the first place but starts to correct all and ads for each student what they are good or bad at on the post it's on their drawn desks. He's still working on that and sitting on the ground to have more space for that when Minerva comes into his office asking, "Is that chair not to your liking?"

"Oh hi." Harry grins sheepishly, "the chair is, but the desk is too small. But I guess that's my fault for using parchment that is as big as the desk, should have used a slightly smaller one but I thought this way I have more space on it which I do need."

"What exactly are you doing?" She asks.

"Making notes about what each student can or can't do and then duplicate what is on those post it to make a chart to find out what topics most have problems with and what most can do well." Harry explains. "I've had three classes that I did this test with and I'm done with about half of one of those."

"I see you're very dedicated." She smiles, "I'm sure it will be easier once you know the classes better and if you stay for a second year you won't have to do this for all classes again since you'll know all but the first years."

He smiles, "Already trying to talk me into staying for a second year?" Harry grins, "I did sign up for five years if I read that correctly."

"Yeah but there are ways to get out of it as we both know." She sighs. "One being to resign with three-month notice meaning you could leave without telling me why if you want to. I had four do that just because they wanted to prevent falling prey to the curse."

"I'm not planning to give up that easily." Harry grins.

"Yet." She says, "But I do hope you will stay. I think this is the first year since I'm headmistress that I had not a single complain from the kids about the defence Professor. I mean it is only the first day but still, usually, they start coming right of the bat. Not that it was ever a surprise none of them was particularly good."

"Well, let's hope it stays quiet." Harry grins. "I'd hate to do this for nothing."

"I'm sure you'll be fine." She says smiling and then leaves.

A little later Kreacher shows up for his daily report telling Harry that everything was quiet at the Black-house and Harry just asks, "Can you help me with something? I have a list with all topics I want to teach during each year and I just finished checking what the students that start the fourth year can do or can't do from everything that I'm teaching during all seven years. Now I'd like to ask you to copy everything from year one to three and add for every topic how many and who can't do those and who is good at them in theory okay? After that I'd like you to see for year four topics who already know the theory for one of those topics. Can you do that?"

"Kreacher can do that." The elf says and snips its fingers to get parchment, quill, ink and the list Harry had mentioned and a little later both are at work. Harry also writes praise under every test he checked as well as a tip what topic he or she should study and a book where they can read up the theory about it. Something he can copy from the list about extra reading material from the Hogwarts Library that he had begged Hermione to make for him and now he has for every topic some books he can suggest thanks to his very own walking library named Hermione.

He is rather proud when he manages to finish most before he starts his rounds and even more pleased when he can get it done before the day is over. The next day Minerva asks him how far he got with his paperwork.

"I admit that I had Kreacher help me out with the overall class review but thanks to that, I'm done." Harry grins proudly but the smile doesn't last when he sighs, "and today there will be more of that!"

"Maybe, but I find it very admirable that you go through so much work to have a thorough understanding of where exactly every student is." She smiles.

Harry can feel Draco's eyes on him but just ignores him for the moment and enjoys his breakfast before the rest of the day passes mostly like the previous one apart from the first years who instead of doing a test have to tell more about themselves as a means of getting to know each other as well and makes sure that they find out who from another house has a similar hobby and even encourages them to interact about that towards the end of the class in the hope to help fight the overly strong rivalry between the houses.

He still has a lot of tests to correct for the first few days of his first week and is extremely glad when he sees one class for a second time. It's the fourth year Slytherin Gryffindor class that he had first and smiles a little that they are also the first to have a more practical class. But before he can do that he informs them that they will go over the test for a moment and then move to another room where they will all have to show him a number of spells that he has selected for each before they get the option to show him one more of their own choosing. He returns their tests and gives them some time to look over their answers. He corrected anything they should know and made a smiley face next to everything that is correct that he hadn't expected them to know. Once that is done he praises them all in general and asks if anyone has a question about his or her test and all seem to be pleased and only one Slytherin asks if he can suggest someone who can help with the topic she should revise since she already read those books and just didn't understand them and he advises a Gryffindor who did best on that topic and asks the Gryffindor to not say no out of principle because she's a Slytherin because some of his fellow Gryffindor might very well need some help on other subjects that are yet to come where she was already ahead and such he should make sure that his housemates won't get denied just because he denied her help.

Once that is done they move to the other room and he orders them to stand in a circle close to the wall and lets them all have a turn to do some spells practically, he already has a list for everyone what he wants them to try according to the tests they had written giving them a chance to show what they knew best in theory and worst as well as a few in between and after that they all can, if they want to, show one they want as he promised.

By the end of the first week, Harry had all classes at least twice and Minerva praises him since some parents already heard from their kids who is teaching them and what he did so far and are apparently very happy with the new defence instructor for their children. And she claims that it is a first for her to actually get positive mail about a defence Professor.

A few days later there is a staff meeting about the students in general to see if anyone might have had any trouble at home that they can help with, something that according to one of the older teachers is something Minerva started, as well as to discuss about Quidditch, when the games will be and who will referee those as well as setting the Hogsmeade weekends and who'll have to be down in the town to have an eye on the students and who'll be forced to stay in the school for the younger years and others that choose to stay behind and similar topics like the nightly rounds for the coming month. Harry is sitting next to Malfoy again and hearing a few snide comments about every student that is mentioned at any point during those discussions and to Harry's surprise those students include some of Malfoy's own Slytherin and he even compliments one Muggleborn seventh year from Gryffindor who, according to him, is the only one capable of brewing halfway decent potions.

During that meeting, Harry also suggests that a chess club or similar things should be started since that might help with inter-house communication. The other teachers all approve of that and they even suggest some more clubs including a book club to discuss different books as well as clubs for a few other games including soccer for the Muggleborns that would like to continue their known sport on top of the new ones. After that, he suggests a magical culture class to help the Muggleborns adapt to the transition into the magical community. While everyone does like the idea it seems tricky to implement right away since they will need to get that approved by the board of governors and then find a new teacher but Minerva is hopeful that it will be included next year since most board members are purebloods and will love such a class to be included as long as she doesn't mention that it will be designed to help the Muggleborns. Harry feels Draco's surprised eyes on himself when he suggests the magical culture class but once again ignores it. Later that night however they run into each other during their rounds and Draco says, "I'm surprised about your suggestion."

"You shouldn't be." Harry grins, "I was muggle raised and believe me, I wanted to know about the magical world but it was hard to learn. I'm not exactly a bookworm and there aren't many people that will tell a muggle born the traditional stuff. The main problem, to properly teach that class, will be that most magical people don't know enough about the muggle world to know what the Muggleborns don't know and the Muggleborns don't know enough about the magical world to know what to ask about! Like the differences in politics or even pureblood traditions and all that Lord this or that and similar things. It starts with the equipment. Muggleborns are very unused to write with a quill! To be perfectly honest most will never have even seen anyone use it. By now I know that it will improve the finer motor skills and since wand movement is done with the same hand it clearly will also be improved. But Muggleborns will just see it as medieval and not understand and as I said, they won't question every detail and just see the overall difference."

"Us, as medieval?" Draco questions, "They aren't even able to teach an owl how to deliver mail and they don't have a floo system."

"They have phones and email!" Harry points out with a shrug and grins saying, "and they have the internet."

"And what is that?" Draco asks his voice showing that he is certain all of those will be inferior to their methods. "I doubt any of that can get your mail to someone as fast as an Owl can."

"Well, it wouldn't be exactly the same timeframe." He says already seeing Draco preen and adds, "It be much faster. As fast as apparating."

"Impossible," Draco claims.

"Nope." Harry grins. "You know how those two-way mirrors work right? Imagine millions of those. All with a different let's call it password as address code. Now E-Mails would be like writing on one of those mirrors before writing the password into a certain area and then send it off to the other mirror where it would be ready to read any time. It will also save it, so you could do a few clicks and read it make it disappear after reading once and reappear to reread it later. They even have machines that print that onto paper. They don't have mirrors of course but their machines that do something like that are called laptops or computer and even mobile phones can do that nowadays. And as the name indicates they are mobile and can be carried around in a pocket anywhere. Those mobile phones are mobile forms of the phones I mentioned. Because apart from writing you can dial a number, and they can be saved with a name meaning you only choose the person you want to reach and have the number that belongs to their mobile, and then their phone rings and once they pick up those two can talk to each other no matter where they are. Even if one is in Australia and the other here. Imagine the Muggleborns that grew up with such machines that don't work here because electrical things don't operate here. They are used to press a few buttons to talk to their parents no matter where they are and no matter the time and everyone can carry it around. I'd like to see you carry around a fireplace and attempt a mobile floo call! Granted they can't travel through it but they have the talking more mobile than we do. You see both worlds have things the other doesn't both magical as non-magical people have developed in different ways and both have things the other can't do. We can travel much faster and better but they can communicate in ways we can't and as I said they have internet."

"And what is this great thing called the internet?" Draco asks clearly curious and trying to hide it by sounding like it has to be inferior.

Harry thinks for a moment and then says, "Remember mirrors I used to explain emails? I said they could save more than one letter and you could look at them whenever and just have them hidden somewhere in between times remember?" After a nod, Harry says, "Now imagine a few hundred and on one of those you'd have all the pages of all the books in the Hogwarts library, on another would be all the pages of all the books in another library and so on. Meaning a hell of a lot of data as they call it. You could read up a lot if you had those. Now instead of going to that place and having to look through all of those mirrors, you could just take out your laptop or mobile phone and write a few words to let it know what you try to learn about like I don't know, information on a school, then the phone would look through everything saved on the internet, which is like a lot of computers or in your image the mirrors, and just show you those that have those words in it. If for example, someone had written Hogwarts they would get information about the books Hogwarts a history and where to buy it or even read about the school and where it is, about the houses the teachers how many students there currently are and things like that. Hogwarts isn't in it of course since magical stuff isn't known to non-magical people, but trust me that is just one of many ways you can use the internet. You can find direct pages of information like in books or you can even play games on it against people that are on the other side of the world, not Quidditch but chess works on it, you know board games and card games and there are other games you can't even imagine. We have nothing like that in the wizarding world. Again, we have things they don't but Muggleborns grew up with those that we don't have and would miss it as much as you would miss using your wand to summon a quill instead of getting up and get it yourself. It might seem insignificant at times but if you'd have to give it up forever, you'd miss it nearly every day. And as I said the internet is really something. Don't just underestimate muggles."

Draco is thoughtful for a while. "I honestly never knew that they had anything worth mentioning and never understood why Muggleborns even wanted to return to a primitive home without magic. I mean cooking above an open fire that is in the house isn't the nicest thing."

Harry just laughs for a moment trying to stop himself in case Draco thinks he's making fun of him but he still needs a moment before he can say, "Muggles don't do that for a long time now. They have electric heat and cook with that too, or with gas. They have a machine turn a button and an area on it gets hot and the pot goes on that. They also have something called microwave that can heat things up in just a few minutes. Draco, they all have those little mobile phones and computers that can give them all sorts of information and entertainment. You can also watch movies online or a TV instead of reading a book and still you think they'd cook over an open fire?"

Draco blushes a little and Harry smiles saying, "I think muggle studies should also be obligatory in the first year and taught by a Muggleborn. I mean, from what I heard from Hermione, muggle studies in our time was a joke since the witch teaching it hardly knew anything about muggle inventions or technologies. I believe the first-year purebloods should at least know a little about how their Muggleborn classmates grew up and maybe a few games that might be fun. I bet you would love a tv or a few video games."

"What's that?" Draco asks and blushes, noticing that he even sounded as curious as he felt.

"How about we try and get a day during a weekend that we can leave together and I'll take you on a little muggle trip through London and show you a little something. Like a cinema and an arcade as well as an internet café or public library, they have computers and I'll show you a bit on them so you'll see a little of what the internet can do." Harry suggests, "That is if you are brave enough to face the muggle world with me as your guide."

"I must admit, it does sound interesting, what is a cinema or an arcade though?" Draco asks curiously.

"You'll see." Harry just grins. "But I think we should go on and see if we find naughty students roaming the halls."

"Like you used to?" Draco grins.

"You were caught once or twice I believe!" Harry grins.

"Not as often as you," Draco replies.

"Guess what," Harry grins, "I was caught less than one percent of all the times I sneaked around!"

"Let me guess you're proud of that." Draco grins.

"Yep." Harry grins again and then goes on to do his round. He knows he could just use his map to find all students out of bed but since he knows that sneaking out is half the fun of being a student he decided to leave them a sporting chance. If he catches them he'll be strict but if he doesn't catch them without the unfair advantage of his trusted marauders map, then they shall get away with it.

A few weeks pass and it seems Harry's and Draco's nightly meetings happen more and more often. Harry isn't sure if Draco does it on purpose. Both have a different area to watch. But Draco's area is close to his, which could mean he's just walking back to a different side of his area or they meet in the entrance hall and see each other from across and then go towards each other for a chat meaning it could still be coincidence but Harry does find it strange how often they meet. He doesn't mind however since he enjoys the debates that range from muggle versus magical world towards different games or even quidditch teams all the way to politics and advantages to different teaching styles or even about students and on one occasion Romilda Vane and love potions since she had tried again but the house elves had warned Harry because he had asked them to watch what he's served for an attempt from her. At some point, rather early on, they even talked some more about Ginny and her idea about Harry being gay and how ridicules that is, just because he hasn't felt any urge to fuck her or any girl through the mattress doesn't mean he is gay right? Draco did agree to that but Harry can't shake the feeling that his grin at the time had been a little strange.

To be perfectly honest, after the first month Harry himself is walking around the border to Draco's area of rounds more than the other hallways because he too is looking forward to the discussions. Draco just always knows when to be supportive, like with Ginny, and when to go into a debate about pro and contra of a certain topic. Talking with him truly is exhilarating and Harry always has a huge smile on his face. He does slightly wonder why their rounds are always that close but he doesn't really care as long as he gets to talk to the blond and enjoy his company and after his second month, he even occasionally checks on the map before going to bed on nights where he didn't see him, just in case Draco is still out somewhere and he could still run into him. He isn't sure why, but he misses him every time he doesn't see him.

It takes three months into the year, and by then Harry has a firm grip on his students and who is good at what or needs help in other areas in his subject, when Hermione and Ron visit him for the first time. They had owled to ask if he has time a few times before but sadly he had been on duty for rounds but that time they all have time and Harry is glad when they walk in through his fireplace and smiles at them, even though a tiny traitorous part of his mind is sad that he won't be seeing Draco because of it. "Hi Harry," Hermione says and gives him a hug. "How are you?"

"Great and you two?" Harry asks before looking at Ron, "How are you enjoying my old post."

"Hate it." Ron grins, "You could have warned me about all that paperwork."

"I think I whined often enough to let you know about that." Harry laughs.

"And about you?" Hermione asks, "How are you getting on? I hope you are on top of your grading and paperwork here and that you prepare your classes properly and do you get along with the other Professors?"

"Everything is great Hermione," Harry assures her. "The first week was hard since I gave every class a test to see where they are since I never taught them but now it's much better than Head Auror and I get along with everyone, the students and teachers."

"That's good." Hermione smiles, "I was a little worried when I heard Romilda is a teacher with her having tried to use a love potion on you."

"Oh, she tried again." Harry grins, "But I have the house elves check everything I eat and drink and told her that should I get another love potion thanks to her, I'll contact Ron who took over as head Auror for me and have her arrested. She hasn't talked to me since and no more love potion since then. And just in case she does try again once more when some time passed, in the belief that I'll get careless, I have the resident potions master watch out for me and I'm sure I'll get the antidote quickly should she ever succeed." Ron and Hermione exchange a look when he said that last part seeing a gentle loving smile on his face. One he hadn't even had when talking about Ginny for a long time. But they just wait and see for now if there will be more signs.

The trio talks a little about teachers they had and school as well as the ministry since both Ron and Hermione are still working there. It's already getting late when there is a knock on the entrance to Harry's quarters from his office and he walks over to open it and smiles more than he had all evening at Draco "Hi, what's up?"

"I just had a meeting with Minerva and found out that we'll both have some time to leave the school next Saturday." Draco points out. "I wanted to ask if you're still good for that offer you made me."

"Sure." Harry says, smile still increasing, "I'm looking forward to it. When do you want to meet?"

"I'll pick you up here at ten in the morning." Draco's smile is rather a victorious grin, "That should give us plenty of time to enjoy ourselves."

"Okay." Harry says cheerfully, "I'll see you then."

"Okay bye," Draco says with a slight blush and a happy and still victorious smile and leaves not even noticing the other two-thirds of the golden trio that are inside.

Once Harry closed the door and looks at his friends he just asks, "Something wrong?"

"Are you dating Malfoy?" Ron just asks.

"Of course not." Harry says, "I just offered to show him around muggle London when we discussed the differences between the muggle world and the magical one."

"Harry, I know you can be a little, I don't even know how to say it friendly but anyway, the way Malfoy just looked at you, you're having a date with him!" Hermione replies.

"Don't be ridiculous," Harry replies, "I talked to him about not being gay and he said that he doesn't care if someone is male or female but still he knows that I'm straight."

"What exactly did you tell him?" Ron asks.

"Pretty much the same I told you since we talked about Ginny breaking up with me." Harry muses.

"Then he knows you're gay." Ron states. "He might know that you're not aware of it and give you time to figure it out but I agree with Hermione, you're having a date."

"This is Malfoy we're talking about." Harry points out. "He wouldn't even want to date me if I were gay!"

Hermione grins and says "Harry, we knew that you had a thing for the potions Professor before we figured out it's Malfoy."

"What makes you so sure that he is the Potions Professor." Harry grins, "Sure he perfected the wolfsbane but he also is very capable in runes and Arithmancy."

"Firstly, Romilda teaches runes." Hermione points out. "And secondly, you were already grinning like a loon in love when you talked about a Potions master having your back in case of a love potion being slipped to you and now you grin at him like a love-struck teen so yeah, we know he's the Potions Professor you're smitten with!"

"Love-struck teen?" Harry asks before looking from her to Ron who is just nodding in agreement. "You both are mental!"

"Nope." Hermione sighs, "If you haven't noticed it now, I'll give you until the end of the year at the most until you'll know we were right. Possibly after your date which I'll bet my whole Gringotts-vault will end with a dinner, he'll probably claim it as a thank you for showing him around!"

"I rather think Harry will figure it out by the end of the date but yeah, Malfoy will want that dinner for sure." Ron agrees.

Harry looks sceptical from one to the other and then sighs, "How about I'll let you know how wrong you were via floo call afterwards?"

"You'll let us know how right we were via floo call and if it is getting late or you'll end up in his bed, you'll do that Sunday," Hermione replies.

"Gross" Ron moans, "Now I have a mental image of that because of you 'Mione!"

She just shrugs and says, "Lucky you, they are both good looking."

"Hey!" Ron complains.

"Oh get your knickers out of a twist." She grins and gives him a kiss to his cheek "I'm still in love with you and not either of them. I'm just enjoying the view."

"Why can't you enjoy my view? You know, your husband?" Ron grumbles.

"Who said I don't?" She winks at him.

Harry just groans and asks if they can change the topic and they start to talk about other things including Ginny starting to date the coach of her Quidditch team. Harry is wondering why he isn't more upset that it means she might not come back when she realizes that he isn't gay and even has a part of his mind wondering if he really isn't since he does enjoy Draco's company an awful lot. He even checks the map where Draco is after his friends left and before he goes to bed.

Until the Saturday that may or may not be a date, Harry doesn't see Draco once during the rounds and only has Draco ask him on Friday during dinner if they are still on for their date causing Harry to spit out his drink and have Draco calmly pad his back when he starts coughing and then Draco asks just as calmly "What's wrong or did you forgot the date to go muggle sightseeing we had?"

Harry just asks, "Date?"

"How else do you call it?" Draco just asks innocently, "It isn't exactly an appointment or a meeting? How do you call it when you go out with Weasley and Weasley because this is the same, isn't it?"

"Right." Harry just says and looks at the other Professors of which some are chuckling including Minerva who looks a little too pleased. "Yeah, I mean no I didn't forget and yeah it's still on."

"Good," Draco replies and continues eating like nothing happened while Harry's heart starts to beat much faster as before.

He had missed seeing Draco during that week and been looking forward to that may or may not be a date more and more. He even had floo called Hermione and asked her to find out some addresses for arcades and things like that as well as other interesting things for a wizard and she has already given him a list that is way too long to do everything. He picks out the most fun and interesting things starting with something mostly interesting and going more and more towards pure fun. He even talked to Hermione to meet up with them at some point to explain her mobile which she owns to occasionally talk to her parents who are obviously living in the muggle world.

The next day Harry wakes up early and starts to fret over his outfit. He isn't sure what he should wear and takes ages to pick simple black jeans and plain green button-up shirt as well as a warm black parker since it's getting cold. Draco is punctual and wearing what looks like a black suit with a silver tie and a warm coat and Harry smiles at him before asking him in and using his floo to get to the Leaky. From there they walk to a library where they meet Hermione who explains about the internet and shows them a few games as well as other things and explains her mobile phone. She even shows them that some muggle born had managed to start a Hogwarts chatroom that you can't enter unless you pass a test and said test is about different subjects from their school and you need a certain amount of points to get in. the questions are chosen at random and according to the age you had to give first and while possibly strange to a muggle, they wouldn't scream real magic is involved and rather think that it's some occult stuff that is asked there but only magical people can get in since it also asks for certain teachers names and things like that. Once in, the students can talk to each other during the holidays and help each other with homework too since they aren't as in touch with their classmates otherwise. Muggle parents are just too far from the magical world and even if living close to the Leaky, purebloods would never go to them or even be able to orient themselves in the muggle world and such it is hard to meet up with each other unless they can easily get to the Leaky on their own. This way they stay in touch with each other much easier.

Both Draco and Harry, who had no idea that existed, are impressed with it and Draco is even more impressed when Hermione shows them that she can get online with her android phone and Draco ends up playing a few of the games on it for a while until she shows him one on the computer in the library that is online. They stay a little longer than Harry had assumed they might and after that Harry goes with Draco straight to the arcade where Harry has to more or less drag Draco out to go to the cinema where Draco keeps mumbling about how on earth they manage to put a memory on view for others and Harry tries to explain that it's not a memory but make-believe film and in the end just tells him to ask Hermione how it works. He does find it rather cute to see his excitement about all of those things. Once that is done Harry goes with Draco to an amusement park for a little while and even though they don't have much time left they try a few rides just for fun and even get some pictures of themselves in a roller-coaster and Harry laughs at Draco's face in it who insists to go again and since the second set of pictures end up being slightly better they take some before Draco suddenly says, "How about I invite you to dinner as a thanks for showing me all that?"

Harry nearly freezes instantly hearing those words that Hermione had prophesied and momentarily thinks that for someone who hates definition she's really good at it. Harry just looks at Draco and sees his smile turning slightly worried since Harry doesn't reply positively right away and clearly noticed that something is up. Harry smiles a little with a blush and says "Sure, why not?"

He isn't so sure it's a good idea at first but when Draco's worried face changes to a happy smile he is sure that it was right. He's just wondering why his heart skips a beat when he sees that smile only to speed up afterwards. Could it be that Hermione was right about his feelings too? Though he used to have this with Ginny too, it's been ages but it had been there when they started to date.

This time Draco leads the way to a posh restaurant in the magical world and Harry tries very hard to tell himself that nothing changed and he didn't just feel his stomach make a backflip when Draco moved an arm around his waist to lead him towards a table there and no he does not feel his knees give out when Draco smiles charmingly at him. He only wonders why on earth he even thinks that it's charmingly. He used to only think such things about Ginny.

It is rather quiet during dinner and Draco just smiles at Harry and enjoys seeing the confusion rise and the blush appear more and more often. It's clear to him that Harry finally notices that he enjoys Draco's company a little more than he should and congratulates himself for avoiding Harry for a few days to let him start missing their talks and then carelessly throwing in the word date to make his mind start working into the right direction during their date. Now Draco tries to eat as seductively as he can, licking his lips a few times or even moaning at the taste when he usually would never do such lowly behaviour but it seems to do the trick considering that Harry's blush increases even more. Harry also starts to squirm in his seat uncomfortably and Draco wonders if Harry's pants finally are starting to get tighter. He just hopes that he can do what Ginny clearly couldn't and wake some more primal interests in the young man who had clearly missed out on some major experiences in his teens and such is lacking in many areas and Draco is looking forward to teaching him those in detail.

Harry blushes even more at another charming smile from Draco and just thinks once again that Hermione should be called a seer considering that apparently, she was right. Every now and then he felt a twitch in his nether region. He was getting turned on by a man, more than he ever had by a girl, not that he had with other men before, but God did Draco look tempting just now. Harry hadn't wanted to kiss lips that much since his first kiss with Ginny. They stay silent while Draco pays the bill and they silently return to Harry's privet quarters via floo and once there Draco just looks at Harry and licks his lips again before saying, "I guess I should leave."

Harry keeps staring at Draco's lips for a few more moments not saying anything and Draco just waits for him to react one way or another and finally after what feels like eternity Draco gets the reaction he hoped for. Harry slowly, nervously really, approaches Draco, clearly with the intention to kiss him. Draco returns it with more enthusiasm before lifting the young man into his arms and carrying him, without stopping their kiss into Harry's bedroom. He notices that Harry still seems worried and nervous and that he will have to be patient, but he really wants to try and seduce his Harry.

The next morning Harry sits with only a towel around his hips and throws some floo into the fire before he puts his head in to talk to his friends who sit in front of their fireplace grinning and Hermione says, "Let me guess, I was right?"

"Nearly one hundred percent!" Harry admits, "I even thought that for someone who hates definition your prophecies for that day were pretty accurate."

"Oh please, those weren't prophecies, they were educated assumptions." Hermione explains. "More importantly, why just nearly one hundred percent?"

"I didn't fall into Draco's bed." He grins before adding with a blush, "I was carried into mine."

"Is he still there?" She asks.

"Yeah, asleep." Harry grins, "It was an interesting night I must admit."

"So, gay?" Hermione assumes.

"I don't really think so," Harry replies with a blush when he notices hands exploring his back and pushing away his towel, apparently Draco woke up. "I've never been this interested in anyone before but I did like Ginny and Cho before her, just Draco got me a tiny bit more interested and I did feel things for Ginny at the start that I felt last night I just hadn't noticed that it stopped at some point. I also think I'm just different and not as sex driven as others, though I did like it a lot. But I didn't feel like waking him and screwing him this morning which I know most guys would want to do. He just got to me yesterday and yeah, I think he could get to me again considering that he is pretty ambitious and cunning. If he wants my ass he's…..okay, he's definitely going to get it" Harry ads the end with a blush, Draco clearly enjoyed Harry's current position a little too much.

"Everything okay mate?" Ron asks.

"Yeah, just Draco is up I think." Harry says, "At least I hope it's him. I think I call you guys later."

"Have fun." Hermione grins while Ron groans and whines about bad mental images.

Later that day Harry and Draco reappear for lunch in the great hall and Harry sits down close to Minerva wondering if she did mess with the rounds to make sure they got talking. "How was your day? I heard you and Draco went to explore Muggle London?" she asks curiously.

"We did." Harry sighs, "And didn't you promise me not to play matchmaker?" He asks now certain that she does have a hand in it and wonders if Draco even planed some things with her or if she did it all on her own.

"Me? Matchmaker?" She asks innocently. "I would never dare to go against an agreement with my favourite Defence Professor. I only ensured to give my favourite Potions Professor some opportunities to realise his own feelings and then charm the one he liked. Is that really so bad?"

Harry just chuckles and shakes his head in amusement before saying, "You are becoming more and more like Albus every day. But it's fine, I was rather pleased with those opportunities myself."

"So I've noticed," She grins and asks, "Does that mean one of you won't need his privet quarters anymore?"

"Are you kidding me, Minerva?" Draco asks, "I could always use one of those as a dressing area since we can floo from one to the other without getting dressed. Do you know how many robes I always have to leave at home?"


	3. Chapter 3

**New Start**

**Chapter three**

Harry is surprised when Hermione's head appears in his fireplace. "Hi Harry." She says seemingly relieved to see him "Can I come through? I have something I'd like to show you."

"Of course," Harry replies and spells the remaining tests he's been grading from his table.

A moment later Hermione steps throw the fireplace and looks around. "Where is Draco." She asks.

Harry is dating Draco for a little over 4 years now. Harry still isn't sure if it makes him gay or bi. He had been dating girls before after all. The girls just never managed to capture his interest as much and as permanent as Draco. "He's doing his rounds, which probably means Gryffindor will lose a few points if he catches one. What brings you here all of a sudden?"

"I stumbled across something I had to show you," Hermione replies and takes a book out if a robe pocket. On the cover was a misty animal. It looks a lot like his own patronus. The colour was a little off and it looks more like a reindeer than his own though. The books name is 'The difference in me.' by D. McNichol.

Harry turns it around to read the back wondering if it's a defence book she wants him to consider for class. The text on the back of the book indicates something different. 'Jamey is a magical bo growing up in a very unmagical family. Watch how he struggles to be different in a family that strives to be normal while he ages and stays kind and brave despite his struggles.'

"You should read what the Author wrote inside," Hermione says taking the book back only to open it to the right page before giving it to Harry again.

Harry looks questioningly but does as asked 'Everyone knows that magic isn't real and such I believe it pointless to mention that this is a fictional story. However, this book was inspired by my real life cousin. A boy as different as can be, but at least as kind and brave as the hero of my story. He grew up with me and my parents who were very proud to be perfectly normal. Though he was very different from us in many ways, the difference in my cousin that I'll forever remember most is his huge heart that saved not only my life but also my soul. I wrote this book to prove to my children, of whom at least one is just as special and different as my cousin, that being different doesn't mean to be worse than others. Being different means the potential to change the world around you! And that is the kind of magic that even a muggle like myself can learn to do.'

Harry stares at it and asks, "Where did you find this?" just now noticing the price sticker commonly used in muggle book stores on the back.

"In Eason in muggle London." Hermione replies what Harry's brain had refused to believe after seeing the price. "I did some research. D. McNichol only wrote this one book. He is married to a guy and doesn't work since he has twins from his first marriage to a woman who died giving birth to their children. His maiden name is Dudley Dursley."

"As in my cousin?" Harry asks confused.

"Yes." Hermione confirms. "You should read it. And when you're done we will talk."

"What about?" Harry wonders.

"Harry, we all knew that your Aunt and Uncle were deplorable, but if even half of what's in that book is true, we barely saw the tip of the iceberg. And I will find out what is true and what is fiction."

Harry sighs and takes the book to look through the pages. He doesn't find a single picture, only small print. He sighs "You do realize that it will take some time."

"Then you better start." She deadpans right before leaving.

Harry sighs and starts to skim the book. Reading the names of the chapters and some of those that might be remotely interesting. He also reads those he'd rather not read about and is grateful that Dudley apparently didn't dare to write everything, or possibly never knew those. Skimming it he doesn't find anything overly disturbing and not a single lie, apart from a change of name for everyone.

He is still skimming it when Draco returns. "Done with your grading?" he asks.

"Not really." Harry sighs. "Hermione dropped by and wants me to read this." He hands the book to Draco and summons the last few tests back to finish his work.

"Is this a muggle book?" Draco asks curiously. "About magic?"

"Seems like an autobiography from my cousin." Harry sighs "He just changed the names. Hermione wants to talk to me about it but after skimming it I really don't see any reason. He made it seem like fiction and most won't ever figure out that it includes me. He even made my stag Patronus look like a reindeer."

"Mind if I read it?" Draco cheerfully asks "I bet you were a spoiled little kid."

"Go ahead." Harry frowns "Maybe you can explain why she wants to talk to me."

It is silent while Draco starts to read the book and Harry grades the tests. It doesn't stay silent for long though. After just a few moments Draco asks, "A cupboard? He wrote your room used to be a cupboard."

"Yeah I know, the one under the stairs. It was comfy." Harry replies "I got his second one shortly before my eleventh birthday. It felt strange, and I used to miss my cupboard at first."

Draco just frowns and reads silently until he asks "You had to cook? Always?"

"Don't be silly." Harry replies "I was way too young at first. I didn't start doing that alone until I was five."

Draco's frown increases. "You didn't react to your name?" Draco asks "When you went to school I mean."

"Kind of." Harry blushes. "But I still loved school. I had colourful crayons there and could colour a door sign with my name after I was told what it is and I pined it up in my cupboard."

After a few more pages Draco just asked "Harry hunting? I mean he wrote Jamey hunting due to the name change but did he really do that and call it like this too?"

"Actually, I should thank Dudley for that one." Harry muses. "It was great preparation for Voldemort's version of Harry hunting." He looks at Draco "But could we not talk about this? I have to finish this."

"Sure." Draco replies and summons quill, ink and parchment. "But we will talk about this later."

Harry frowns but eventually sighs in resignation and continues with his work. Once he is done he stretches his tired muscles.

"Can we talk now?" Draco asks sounding upset.

"Does it have to be tonight?" Harry sighs. "I'm really tired."

"Fine," Draco says. "But you better have some time for this tomorrow because you won't sleep tomorrow until we talked."

"I don't get why, but fine." Harry sighs again. "Are you coming to bed too?"

"I'll finish this first," Draco replies.

"The whole book?" Harry asks shocked. Draco hasn't even finished a quarter of it.

"Of course the whole book." Draco deadpans.

"Well," Harry shrugs "Good night I guess."

"Good night Harry," Draco replies and continues his reading.

The next morning Harry wakes up next to Draco in their bed and is glad he found his way there eventually. After entering the living room it looks like he really did finish the book and looking over the parchment Harry just grabs a quill and writes behind everything Draco apparently found hard to believe a true and answered the questions he wrote afterwards.

'No I don't have nightmares about them. I used to have some about the war but less often then it used to be the case.' Which is true. He only has a nightmare in 2 out of three nights instead of almost every night.

'No I've never been to a mental healer because I'm not crazy.'

'No I don't hate all muggles, I don't even hate them. Clearly, it was just because I was different and they feared that.'

'Of course I would visit Dudley if I knew where he lived and would ask me over. And I would mention it but go alone if you are busy.' Harry doesn't get why Draco apparently wants to know if Harry would go and see any of his muggle relatives alone but adds 'I doubt my Aunt and Uncle would ever want me to visit them. But sure, if they needed my help I'd go.'

He finishes with a question. 'Do we really still have to talk about this? I really don't see a reason?'

"Draco," Harry calls out to his partner after checking the time, "You'll be late for breakfast unless you hurry. And by the way. I wrote down an answer for everything."

It doesn't take long to read Harry's replies but because Draco also still needs to get dressed Harry has left the room before Draco can read the last line.

He takes out another piece of parchment. 'I'll talk to him tonight during dinner about that book. You two are welcome to join. Draco A. Malfoy!' He also magically copies the parchment with his questions and Harry's replies and adds it to his short letter before he hands it to his owl saying "Get this to Hermione Granger-Weasley as soon as possible." Once that is done he goes to breakfast, sits next to Harry and says. "I've sent a copy to your friends and invited them for dinner. Does that answer your question."

"I guess." Harry shrugs "I still don't get why but thanks for inviting Hermione. I actually have a question for her."

"What question?" Draco wonders.

"In the book, Dudley wrote that at least one of his children is as special as his cousin." Harry reminds Draco "I want to know if one of them is magical."

"Finally, something I understand." Draco replies "You must be worried how he'd treat that child."

"Well, more like worried that he is nervous about his child. He doesn't know that much about the magical world and might like to ask for advice on occasion." Harry shrugs.

"Are you kidding me?" Draco asks.

"No." Harry grins, "Draco, it's not Dudley's fault how his parents raised him the way they did. Just like it wasn't your fault that you knew nothing about muggles and thought them primitive."

Draco frowns unhappily and replies, "You will not see him without me around to protect you and not until we talked about this with Hermione."

"Fine." Harry replies, "I wasn't about to write to him until I know if Hermione has heard anything I should know."

After that, the two go to class. It's Friday and Harry is happy that he doesn't have much to do the next two days. He has to do some rounds in the castle on Saturday. But since it's a Hogsmeade weekend and he has to go there, he can do whatever he wants on Sunday and wonders if he should go and see Dudley that day. That is if Dudley even wants to see him and has some time. But he could write to him after Hermione left and that would give Dudley some time to reply.

Later that evening Draco has arranged for a nice dinner in their private quarters and Hermione and Ron are there before Harry get's back from his office. "How was he today?" Hermione asks worried, the book might have triggered some unwanted memories.

"It's scary how normal he acts." Draco sighs. "But he wants to ask about Dudley's kids possibly being like him and visit his cousin to help him with any questions about the magical world his cousin might have."

"I'd understand if he'd take the kids but this!" Hermione sighs.

"I'd even help him." Ron points out. He had read the book too after Hermione had talked about some of the things she had read like if Harry had been locked up as a kid as long as the kid in the book had been locked up in his damned room when his magical friends came in a flying car to break him out. He had prayed ever since that it hadn't been that long. Thanks to Draco's letter they now know that apparently, it was just that long. Both regretted that they hadn't been more forceful in their help and made Dumbledore remove him from that home. It can't have been healthy that he grew up like that.

"You won't let him go through with visiting him are you?" Hermione asks.

Draco sighs, "If you know a way to stop him, be my guest."

"Let him sleep on the couch?" Ron asks. "That thread usually works like a charm whenever Hermione uses it on me."

"We are talking about Harry." Draco replies, "He wouldn't care, but guess what, I do!"

"He hasn't changed then?" Hermione asks.

"Not the least." Draco sighs. "He never started anything, not even a touch or cuddle or something like it. But by now I blame his relatives. He never had any positive physical experience growing up."

"Cho's crying the first time he does kiss a girl probably didn't help." Ron sighs. "Ginny said that he used to occasionally kiss her at the start though."

"Hormonal teenager years." Hermione shrugs, "Even he must have had some hormones rushing through him. I admit it didn't do much compared to others but compared to how he is now it is a noticeable change."

"I doubt he'll ever freely see a mind healer though." Ron shrugs.

"As long as he's like now, he won't have to," Draco replies. "He did give me our first kiss after a lot of hard work on my part but still. And I never noticed any nightmares, so they probably aren't too bad compared to what is written in the book."

"He used silencing spells in the dorms." Ron warns, "He might still do that."

At that moment Harry walks in and all three stare at him silently. "Hi guys, how are you?" He asks trying not to feel like he interrupted their preparations for his impending doom.

"Hi Harry," Hermione replies. "How are you feeling after reading the book?"

"I only skimmed it and read those questions Draco had." Harry replies, "But I'd be fine either way."

"Are you sure?" Ron asks. "That book didn't make it sound nice."

"It wasn't nice." Harry shrugs, "But did you just talk about the contents of a book that was not a school requirement?"

"Read it cover to cover," Ron replies. "Why did you never tell us how bad it was."

"What's the point?" Harry asks, "I don't know if Dudley mentioned it, but the first letter I got was addressed to that cupboard, if whoever wrote that letter never cared, why should I bother."

"It's magically written and send to all students," Draco explains. "For those with muggle parents, it's sent to the headmaster or mistress. Your parents are magical, alive or not doesn't matter."

"And Miss Figg and all the others watching me?" Harry asks.

"Were outside." Hermione points out. "Just like us, they only saw the tip of the iceberg and never knew how bad it was."

"Doesn't matter," Harry says. "There was no alternative anyway."

"My parents?" Ron asks outraged, "Aren't we an alternative to that?"

"With Voldemort on my trail ready to kill me and everyone helping me, no you were not." Harry reminds him. "The blood wards only worked while I stayed with them! If I had come and lived with you, they might have attacked anytime and killed you all! I would never have taken that risk."

It is quiet for a moment while Draco frowns. "Dumbledore might have placed someone inside there with you, no matter what they said if you had just told someone."

Harry sighs, "Well, fine, maybe I should have said something. But honestly, it's too late to talk about it now and to be fair, forcing them to let someone else stay wouldn't have made them any nicer. We could talk about this all night, but I still believe that it couldn't be changed and anyway it wasn't that bad. Some other kids have it way worse and they survive. On top of that, I survived the war without getting too much of a trauma to deal with my life. I'm fine. There is no reason for you to overreact now."

"But you aren't fine, Harry," Hermione replies. "You still show signs of the neglect."

"I'm smallish and?" Harry asks.

"Drop it," Draco says looking towards Hermione. She frowns but then sighs and nods, agreeing that pointing out that his more or less non-existing sex drive is possibly another consequence of this might be too much right now. "Let's eat something."

It is rather quiet for a moment until Harry asks Hermione, "Since you did some research, do you know if either of his kids is magical?"

She sighs and replies, "There were some reports of accidental magic of minors at the house but I'm not sure which one. But they turned eleven last month and since the year is nearly at an end, Professor McGonagall might already know."

"I'll talk to her then." Harry replies with a nod before he asks Ron, "How are you liking your position as head Auror by now?"

"Better." Ron grins, "I mostly ignore the paperwork and do field work until Miss Minister gets on my nerves. And then I pass the paperwork to my crying secretary."

"Which will be soon again unless you do it a little sooner this time. And it's your work so bloody well do it yourself." Hermione who has become the Minister of Magic replies. "Honestly, what is it with you two and paperwork."

"Phobia of papercuts?" Harry asks.

Hermione chuckles, "Honestly Harry, you are positively crazy."

"Of course," Harry grins, "Me myself and I agreed that normal is boring."

Draco grins and replies, "Maybe you should go see a mind healer than." He sighs and tries to bring the talk back to the topic he had occasionally wanted to get to. "Might help with nightmares too. You only wrote less than they used to be and honestly, can't be more if it was more or less every night like in that book."

"About two out of three nights now." Harry replies with a blush, "But it is still getting better."

"How is it getting better?" Draco asks trying to keep his voice calm and calculated so Harry won't feel like he's prying or believing him crazy or such.

"I still had them every night a few years ago when we started dating," Harry replies with a blush. "I didn't have one that first night you were here though but chalked it up to coincidence. But I had a nightmare free night about once a month for that first year. Later one every other week and by now, I sleep fine whenever you are in bed before me or come to bed with me."

Draco blushes and smiles, "In that case, I'll try to always come to bed latest when you do. I might like to read in the evenings but, I'm sure we could think of something else to keep me busy."

"Gross." Ron shivers, "But I'm glad it's getting better Harry."

"Why did I never hear anything?" Draco asks eying him sceptically.

Harry blushes "I'm very efficient with localised silencing spells."

"Harry," Hermione sighs, "It's not healthy to hide your nightmares. You need to talk about it."

"And wake up Draco every time I have one?" Harry asks.

"What if I told you that I'm very efficient in localised silencing spells for the same reason?" Draco asks and after a shocked look from everyone in the room he frowns and adds, "I was in one house with that monster for some time during that last year, that thing hugged me! And you really don't want to know how much torture I was forced to witness."

"Why would you hide that from me?" Harry asks outraged.

"Because I didn't want to wake you up." Draco replies and ads with a blush, "And I thought I was weak that I have nightmares when you don't. You are the one that died during the last battle." Draco lets that thought sink in for just a moment before he adds, "But I'm willing to agree to a deal. I won't use silencing spells in our bedroom if you promise not to use them either. After all, it's only fair that I get to hear you scream like a baby if you get to hear me."

Harry grins. "Agreed." He knows that Draco doesn't like to appear weak and that he wants to be there for Harry just as much as Harry wants to be there for him.

"Good," Draco smiles, "Now that we have that covered. Do you really have to go and see that cousin of yours?"

"Yes, I do," Harry replies. "Hermione said that there were outbursts of magic which means one is magical. I have to at least go there and watch the kids and talk to them once I know which one is the magical twin, I can't just stay away and risk them coming here related to me and not even know me."

"You will take me though!" Draco insists. "You already agreed to that."

"I will Draco." Harry smiles, "If you have time."

"Oh, I'll make time." Draco threatens.

Harry just grins and says, "Whatever makes you happy."

Draco gives him a small peck on the lips and smiles happily at him. They enjoy the rest of the evening with a more pleasant talk about work as well as Ron's huge family and their two kids Rose and Huge who are spending the evening with Molly. Next year it would only be Hugo who'll be with his grandmother on such nights. Since Rose will join Hogwarts for the next year.

The next morning Harry walks up to Minerva's office as soon as possible and says, "I've got a question. Do you already know the names of the Muggleborn kids for the coming year?"

"Yes, why are you asking?" Minerva asks and opens a drawer to take out a piece of parchment.

"I found out that my cousin probably has a magical child and I'd like to find out which one of them it is. They are twins and turned eleven recently." Harry explains. "The one with the magic should be on the list."

"I see no Dursley." She replies.

"Oh, he remarried after his wife died." Harry replies, "And he took the name of his husband. Maybe the kids now have that name too. It's McNichol."

"I have two McNichols on it." Minerva replies, "One is named Daisy and the other is Harris."

"I see," Harry replies. "I know it's still early, but do you mind if I see them and already tell them?"

"You want to go there personally?" Minerva asks surprised. "Are you sure? I understand that you want to make sure that he treats them all right, but I could send Neville and Draco together. They would make damn sure the kids are okay."

"I want to make sure Dudley is okay too." Harry deadpans. "I haven't seen my cousin in ages and I'd like to see him. And don't worry, I'm fine and had a lengthy discussion about this with Hermione, Ron and Draco because all of them seem to agree with you and worry way too much. And if it calms you further, Draco is insisting on coming with me."

She frowns for a moment but then sighs. "In that case go ahead." She gets out her wand and charms their letters to already appear, "Might as well take this. All the Professors already confirmed that they keep the books they used this year or what they want instead. It is very handy to have a year with no staff change which is why I love that you started here."

"Thanks," Harry replies and takes the letters. "I'll make sure they'll get their letters."

After that is done he walks to his own office and takes out a quill and parchment and starts to write a letter and after sending it he's walking a few rounds around the grounds and castle to make sure all the kids are doing fine and are reminded to be on their best behaviour since he is around to bust their asses.

In the meantime, Dudley is in the garden and watches his husband play soccer with Harris while Daisy is reading in her favourite book. Sometimes he wonders which one of his kids are responsible for all the strange things that happened so far but mostly he just worries how they'll react when only one is invited to Hogwarts. His kids are as different as day and night but still very close and protective of their sibling. He enjoys the nice weather and is about to go inside to prepare some lunch for his family when he sees an owl fly towards him. It isn't Harry's old owl since this looks more like a barn owl. Something he knows since he looked up about different owls to find a different one for his book instead of Harry's snowy owl. He didn't want the wizards to notice too easily that it was Harry the book was talking about. Which is why he never mentioned how he and his cousin lost touch. He just wrote that he left once he was of age. Something that should be very believable. And while the nightmares are mentioned and it was assumed to be about something that happened in that magical world, he never once mentioned a dark wizard or a war. This way, no one would ever know that it's Harry Potter who inspired this book.

The owl still drops a letter right in front of him.

"That's strange," Daisy says and Dudley sees that his two guys are also looking at him surprised, clearly they noticed the owl too. "That is just like in your book."

Dudley just takes the letter that only has his name on it while the owl settles in a nearby tree. Possibly waiting for a reply.

'Hey, Dudley.  
I hope you are doing all right. I saw your book, a friend found it and read it and knew enough about my past to figure out that it was about me after some extensive research, and let me tell you that she is the queen of research, she knew that you are married to your husband, used to be married to the mother or your twins but are a widower. She also already knew about some accidental magic by a minor in your household. Not who though. But I found that out and I wanted to know if you have some time soon so I can pass along some informations together with the acceptance letter.  
I have some time off work on Sunday and could stop by but I'll see if I can arrange another time that is more to your liking. I asked my new owl, Achilles, to stay until you wrote a letter.  
Kind regards,  
Harry.'

Dudley looks up and sees that every one of his family is still watching him. "My cousin would like to visit Sunday."

"And he lets you know with an owl?" Paul asks his husband.

"Apparently." Dudley replies, "What about Sunday."

"Fine." Paul replies still surprised and asks, "How will you answer though, we do not have an owl."

"Achilles is waiting for a reply." Dudley blushes.

"Who is Achilles?" Paul wants to know but Dudley just points up to the tree where the owl is waiting and watching him closely. "Oh, of course. Is that how you got this idea? Your cousin was good with animals and trained owls?"

"Something like it," Dudley replies and takes out a pen and writes on the parchment of Harry's letter. 'I've got time and Paul and the kids too. But I live in my parent's old house, if that is too much for you we can go out and meet somewhere else. Just let me know where.'

He sends it off again and later that evening he sees the owl outside his window and takes a reply on another parchment asking 'Why is everyone overly worried about me? I'm perfectly fine to visit you there. And by the way, everyone includes my friend Draco who insists to tag along. I hope you don't mind. We'll be there around 3 pm.'

Dudley just sighs and finishes dinner which he had been preparing since he can't see Achilles outside this time and fears that he didn't wait. It doesn't matter though. He certainly doesn't mind if Harry brings some mental support for this and during Dinner, he tells his husband that Harry is bringing a friend.

The next days Dudley is cleaning the house like a madman. He wants to leave a good impression on his cousin and his friend. The kids notice his nerves and Daisy watches worriedly before asking, "How much of your book was true?"

"Why are you asking?" Dudley asks.

"You act like he is really special and I read what you wrote at the start. And I know that you were always funny about that spare room upstairs. Just like the stairs look like there used to be a cupboard under it."

Paul is listening closely to his husband's reaction. He had wondered about this too considering that he knew about the cupboard. Dudley had nearly taken out the stairs while breaking out some boards before sawing away the rest of the wall and door that made up the cupboard. He also remembers that the door of that spare room had a cat flap when they moved in. Just like the door in that story. And counting the rooms upstairs, one for them, one for each of the kids, and the spare one. It fits one parent room one guest room and two kid rooms. It could be true.

Dudley sighs. "The names aren't true, and a few things are altered to make sure no one figures out it's about my cousin Harry. But yeah, the rest is all true."

"Apart from the magic obviously," Paul adds.

Dudley doesn't reply. It's nearly 3 pm on that Sunday anyway. He just starts to set the table and cut the cake he had backed the previous day. He just hopes Harry and his friend like it.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Paul tries to calm his husband. "And you wrote that he already mentioned me, so he can't be bothered by you being gay now."

"He is way too good to mind such things." Dudley sighs. "But still, he is an amazing man and I want to show him that I changed."

"He read the book." Paul reminds him of what Dudley had said, "I'm sure he knows that it means that you must see things differently now. You did portray him very favourably and wrote about differences being good."

"But he has so many bad memories about this place." Dudley worries. "And if he's here and surrounded by all that, what if he'll start blaming me? I mean I did go along when I was younger and never really helped him much."

"I'm sure it will be fine." Paul replies, "Just apologize."

"How do you apologize for that?" Dudley asks close to tears.

The clock chimes, indicating that it's 3 pm and a car seems to crack on the street right before the doorbell rings. "They are here." Harris says, "Want me to go?"

"I'll go," Paul replies hoping that he can help by explaining to this Harry how bad Dudley really feels about everything. He quickly goes to the door while Dudley mumbles something about boiling water for tea. Paul opens the door and two men are standing outside. One with wild black hair and glasses and the other with blond hair that looks absolutely perfect.

"Hi." The man with dark hair and glasses says, "I'm Harry Potter, Dudley's cousin, and this is my friend Dra…" He was about to say more when the blond hit his friend at the back of his head. It didn't seem to be too hard but still, Paul raises an eyebrow in surprise. "That hurt," Harry says looking at his friend.

"You deserve it." The blond grumbles before looking at Paul. "I'm not just his friend I'm his partner. We live together. And my name is Draco Malfoy, nice to meet you."

Draco still glowers and doesn't look like he believes anything about this meeting to be nice. Paul isn't too surprised. If the tables were turned, he'd be dreadfully worried about Dudley and this Draco must be too. "Nice to meet you too," Paul replies. "Both of you. Dudley was so happy to hear from you, Harry. He really regrets everything that used to happen. He even broke down the cupboard under the stairs and burned the door with the cat flap."

"Why would he do that?" Harry asks.

"Because apparently, he has a brain." Draco sighs before looking at Paul. "He can be a little dense."

"Hey," Harry complains.

"How about you two come in?" Paul suggests smiling. The two seem to be rather close though acting in a very amusing fashion.

Both follow him into the house just when Dudley returns from the kitchen. "Hello, Harry." He says shyly.

"Hi, Dudley." Harry replies and it's quiet for a moment before Harry feels Draco's elbow gently nudge him in the rips and knowing that a second nudge won't be gentle he adds, "And this is my partner Draco."

"Nice to meet you." Dudley replies and wonders if the two are dating or working together. Either way, the way he glowers at everything and everyone he must be very protective of Harry.

"Pleasure." Draco drawls and it's clear that he does not consider this a pleasure at all.

"Well," Dudley sighs looking back towards Harry, "I'm making some tea and got some cake. Backed it myself."

"You can bake?" Harry asks.

"Yes, my late wife taught me, mum hated her because she insisted that I help around the house a little bit. You know on my of days giving her a bit of a break to." Dudley replies and forcefully stops his rambling. "Anyway, why don't you have a seat?"

"I believe I have something for someone first," Harry replies and takes out two letters.

"Two letters?" Dudley asks.

"Yes," Harry smiles. "One for each." After that, he walks towards the kid's that are sitting on a couch and hands a letter to each.

They look surprised before they open it. Daisy reacts first and frowns asking, "Is this a joke because of dad's book? Is that why you are wearing those strange robes?"

"The book is more truthful than you thought." Draco just replies. "Everything in it is true."

"Not everything." Harry points out. "You were the one with an eagle owl. I used to have a snowy owl named Hedwig and most of all. My Patronus does not look like a reindeer."

"Really?" Dudley asks, "I mean I didn't get that good a look since I was a bit out of it, but it looked like one to me."

"It's a stag, see," Harry says and takes out his wand. "Expecto Patronus." Everyone stares at the Patronus coming from his wand.

Draco stares most of all until he suddenly cheers, "Yes!"

"I admit," Dudley says wondering about the blond's reaction. "That was not a reindeer, but it sure as hell wasn't a stag either."

Harry hadn't used this spell in years. In class, he usually just explains it since everyone knows his Patronus there isn't that much of a point for a demonstration. Especially since he lets them start to practice from third year onwards and the older ones usually manage at some point and show their friends around the school. That way all the kids already saw a few before they start to officially learn it.

Due to that, Harry had no idea that it changed. "It used to be a stag," Harry replies.

"Is it that strange that it changes?" Daisy asks curiously.

"It can happen." Harry replies with a slight, "But usually doesn't."

"Why did it change?" Harris wants to know.

"A Patronus always takes the form of an animal that represents someone or something you feel a strong bond with. Like a family member or close friend. Since such feelings can change, the Patronus can change too." Harry explains.

"Ah," Paul replies grinning towards Draco and winks. "It changed into a Dragon to represent someone else than whoever was represented by that stag."

Draco grins proudly while Harry says, "My father was an Animagus, which means he could turn into a certain animal and it was a stag."

"Can you turn into an animal?" Harris wonders excitedly.

"A Panther." Harry grins back.

"Show us." Harris requests.

Harry grins and does as asked and looks like a black panther for a moment before he turns back. He barely managed to turn back when both kids start to ask a million and more question at the same time.

Dudley stops them saying, "Give the man some time to reply. And anyway, tea is done now get to the table and behave, please."

While walking to the table Daisy asks Draco a question. "This says the deputy headmaster's name Is Professor Draco A. Malfoy. Is that you?"

"Obviously," Draco replies.

"Will you teach us something then? And if so, what subject?"

"I teach Potions." Draco replies "Which is one of the main classes that you will have to take for at least five years."

"I was tortured with seven years of it." Harry jokes.

"It is not torturing," Draco complains. "It is very interesting. But then again, it is probably too complicated and precise for a cute little dunderhead like you!"

Harry just grins at the kids and replies "Or my old professor just wasn't as interesting as your one. Most girls love his class. Though I'm not sure it's his class they love."

"Don't you mind them crushing on your partner?" Paul asks. Dudley is usually rather jealous when a girl just looks at him.

"Why would I." Harry shrugs "I'm a little worried about the older boys that love his class, but the girls haven't got a chance."

"Lucky you." Draco sighs "I have way more to worry and not only because you're bisexual. Your class is way more popular than mine."

"Your teaching too?" Harris asks. "What Subject?"

"And what will we do in potions?" Daisy wonders.

"Let them have their tea first please." Dudley reminds.

"It's okay," Draco says. "It is not the first time I'm handing letters to a Muggleborn." After that, he smiles at the kids. "In potions, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and snare the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame and even put a stopper in death." Draco grins at Harry "Unless you are a dunderhead like Harry."

"And what does he teach?" They both ask even more curious to learn about another subject.

"Silly wand waving." Draco brushes it off before Harry can say anything.

It is just unfortunate for Draco that Harry did feel nervous and has his wand ready at all times and quickly casts a Patrificus totalus on Draco, sending him to the floor before calmly saying "If someone had learned his silly wand waving in his Defence against the dark art class, which I'm teaching now. Then maybe that someone could have used a first-year defensive charm like Protego to protect himself against that spell. Finite incantatem." Harry grins even though Draco's glare while getting up is scary. "Don't get your knickers in a twist you started it."

"Very mature." Draco grumbles.

Harry shrugs before he looks at the kids adding. "Don't try this in school on him. He usually is very good at defence. I was lucky to catch him off guard and as most students and the other professors will confirm, I'm just rather quick in, what did Draco call it, oh yeah, silly wand waving."

"Rather quick? Talk about the understatement of the year." Draco grins. "Your class is only so popular because you are so popular being a war hero and all that."

"A war?" both ask. Harris sounding exited while Daisy sounded scared.

"It's over." Draco calms her.

"Lucky for you Harris," Harry adds. "My friend Gorge lost his twin brother in it."

"How do you lose a person?" Harris wonders innocently.

"Fred was killed right in front of Gorge," Harry explains. "They were lucky though. Most of their family is still alive and Fred died quickly. Neville's parents were tortured until they lost their mind. They might be alive. But aren't able to even get dress and neither remembers nor recognise their own son. Don't get excited by a war Harris."

"I would protect Daisy," Harris replies sounding brave.

"Oh boy, a Gryffindor." Draco sighs.

"Later," Harry tells Daisy who was about to ask what Draco had meant. "Harris, do you think no one tried to protect Fred? Do you think everyone was twiddling their thumbs while someone killed and that you could have done that much of a difference? Do you think there is glory in a war? If though let me tell you that yes, I am considered a war hero. I defeated the leader of the dark side. I saved hundredth of people doing that. I was also temporarily dead while doing it. I saw another student, a friend, being killed because no matter how hard I tried I couldn't protect him. I saw my godfather getting killed, while he tried to protect me and I couldn't change it no matter how much I wanted to save him. I've seen people die, heard my friend scream while she was tortured. No glory will ever be worth that."

Draco puts a hand on Harry's to calm him. "All your future teachers have fought in the last magical war. And your classmate's parents will have made sure that they know what war means. Be careful how you react about it in school. Now, I believe Daisy wanted to find out what Gryffindor means? It's the name of one of the four houses in Hogwarts. The brave ones, or stupid really, who rush into danger without thinking go there. The best one is Slytherin."

"You mean for the pompous and arrogant?" Harry asks cheekily earning himself another glare before Harry chuckles and says. "There is no best house. All of them are good. They just value different things. Gryffindor values bravery, daring, and chivalry. Hufflepuffs value hard work, dedication, loyalty, patience and of course fair play."

"They still cheated in the last game against Slytherin." Draco points out still hung up that his snakes had lost a quidditch game against them.

"Go cry me a river." Harry shrugs "Not one in any house always is everything his house stands for and I believe the Slytherins cheated most by comparison to the others this year. Either way. Ravenclaws value intelligence, knowledge and wit."

"Isn't that all the same?" Harris asks.

"Excuse my brother." Daisy sighs "I'll explain it to him tomorrow though he's certainly not a Ravenclaw."

"And last but not least, Slytherin who value ambition, cunning and resourcefulness." Harry says "Every house has a teacher as head of house who used to go there as well. Have a guess who is Slytherin's head of house?"

"You?" Harris wonders.

"No." Daisy sighs. "It clearly is Draco the way he talks."

"I bet you were a Gryffindor or a Slytherin." Dudley muses looking at Harry "You were certainly very brave and while also pretty resourceful you two don't act like you were in the same house."

"Gryffindor is right." Harry replies proudly, "And I think it's a grand house thank you very much."

"What other subjects will we have?" Daisy asks.

"You will have Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, History of Magic, Defence against the Dark Arts and of course Potions," Draco replies. "After third year you can add some more."

"Have to choose at least two," Harry replies smiling at Harris. "I suggest Definition and care of magical creatures. The first is a joke and the second is easy and has a great teacher."

"Dangerous as hell though." Draco replies, "Nearly lost my arm in it."

Harry slaps him seeing Dudley and Paul pale so much. "Was your own fault." He says, "And anyway, it was just a scratch you were way overreacting. And Hagrid is fine, I admit that he does love dangerous animals, but no one knows more about them than Hagrid and trust me, he has them under control unless someone has to go against his direct order!"

Draco shrugs, "They were dangerous, and it was our first class."

"And his first as a teacher, he learned." Harry insists. "He really is grand. Nothing to worry about and Hogwarts is totally safe."

"It wasn't for you," Dudley replies. "Even my parents couldn't give you nightmares, but that place did."

"The war did," Harry replies with a sigh. "I was 11 years when Voldemort tried to rise again."

"Don't say that name." Draco interrupts with a grumble.

"Fear of a name only…" Harry starts.

"Increases fear of the bloody thing I know," Draco complains. "In general that might be true but honestly, I could not fear him more than I already do."

"He's dead." Harry points out. "He isn't coming back."

"Doesn't change the fact that I don't want to hear his name," Draco complains.

"Tough luck." Harry says, "VOLDEMORT! Now that we have that sorted, as you see everyone was too scared to even of his name. Which is silly, he renamed himself because he hated his name and then Voldemort himself wanted people to avoid using that new one. Probably to make people fear him even more."

"And you fought him?" Harris asks in awe.

"I had to," Harry replies with a frown. "He was killing everyone around me trying to kill me. It was killing him or be killed and let him kill everyone else I cared about."

"Scary," Daisy replies.

"Worse," Harry confirms. "But he is gone, the war ended years ago. Hogwarts is safer than ever."

"Especially since Harry is there." Draco points out. "Everyone on the dark side was running for the hills when they saw Harry standing up after getting hit with the second killing curse in his life. He is the only one to ever survive that curse and he did it twice and both times the most powerful evil wizard in history threw that curse at him. To be frank, I think death eaters only call him the boy who refuses to bloody die because they are scared of his name."

"Death Eaters?" Daisy asks.

"Voldemort's followers," Harry replies.

"I was one," Draco replies. "But only because my father was one before me and I had to join or watch my parents die. I never really wanted to though."

"And he saved me once." Harry says. "Don't deny it, you lied to your scary aunt to protect me"

"Why is your aunt scary?" Harris asks Draco.

"She was a death eater too," Draco replies. "And she loved it."

"She was totally bonkers if you ask me," Harry replies.

"I won't deny that," Draco confirms. "Either way, during the war, I lived with death eaters, and they might have said your name out at the start, but it got less and less. And only very few did, like my crazy aunt. They wouldn't admit it of course. But I had the feeling that all those names were just to avoid saying yours."

"Why did they fear him though?" Daisy asks. "He just didn't die. It's not like he attacked them."

"Harry would never harm someone if it was possible," Draco confirms. "But he still won against them every time and survived the attacks of the Dark Lord. On top of that would the dark Lord punish everyone who failed him when Harry won and got away."

"Either way," Harry says trying to change the topic away from himself again. "It is getting late, maybe we should make a date where we help you get your school shopping since neither of your fathers knows where to buy a wand or a cauldron and then we leave for today. But feel free to write a list of questions for us, though I suggest reading a few books about magical history or about Hogwarts for some light background reading as my friend would call it. You can buy those when we get your school stuff."

They do as he suggests and after that Draco and Harry leave the building and return to Hogwarts. Once they are in their privet room Draco asks. "How do you feel now?"

"Fine, why are you asking?" Harry asks grinning.

"Because you were pretty tense when Harris reacted like most kids his age who never heard much about war do," Draco replies.

"I know. I overreacted a little." Harry sighs before taking his hand, "Thanks for distracting me. But I'm fine now. I really am." And leans closer to give Draco a small peck on the lips. He is very happy that Harry, at last, shows that bit of affection towards him without being prompted.

"Since when is your Patronus a Dragon?" Draco asks now with a happy grin.

"I have no idea." Harry shrugs, "I just noticed it today since I hadn't cast it in years."

"I'm happy it changed." Draco says giving Harry a kiss of his own though with more enthusiasm than Harry's had been.

"Can you cast a Patronus?" Harry wonders.

Draco blushes and says, "Yes and I swore myself to never use that spell. I'll rather die."

"Why?" Harry asks, "Is it a ferret?"

"No." Draco replies outraged. "It's not that bad, but bad."

"What is it?" Harry asks. "Show me, please. It could have changed."

Draco sighs, he knows that Harry won't quit until he gets what he wants so he takes out his wand and casts the spell without looking and thinks about his first time kissing Harry. He knows that it will work and a moment later a proud silver lion is standing there. Harry just smiles, "Is it because of me?"

"Who would be more Gryffindor than you?" Draco asks, and Harry just smiles and leans over to Draco and kisses him gently for a little longer and a little later Draco wonders if it was good for Harry to face his past the way they had today considering that Harry had actually dragged Draco into their bedroom after some kissing where Harry had been more enthusiastic than ever.


End file.
